Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 28 February 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism

Autism Policy: Discussion (Resumed)

If it is done well, it starts to help everyone to understand themselves, what they need, why they might be struggling and what supports they need. That is the start of that intervention process. It is a therapeutic process in itself. Every psychologist who qualifies is autism diagnostic observation schedule, ADOS, trained. They have no experience in running this kind of tick-box of an assessment rather than competent experienced people who work together whose time is ring-fenced to do those assessments, and who could do some quickly and others that take longer. They have the experience to do that. If there is no set time and no set structure around autism assessments, there is no flexibility in being able to offer to do some quicker, some in a different way, some longer as required. The current legislative focus on AON constantly impacts the service delivery of CDNTs. The review of the Disability Act needs to look at the structure of how assessments are done so that they are done in a way that is effective, appropriate and positive.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.