Dr. Sonia Morris:

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, in the UK the NHS is trialling neurodivergence teams. Those teams have a remit for ADHD across all presentations of it, including autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and any functioning of brain difference. Because the co-occurrence rate is so incredibly high, it means that there is one service providing all the assessment and intervention for each child. In my mind, that is a functioning system. Replication of that in Ireland would be beneficial. At the moment there are separate teams and services providing intervention and assessment, depending on the presentation and needs of the child. There could be a child who is on the wait list for NEPS for their dyslexia assessment, on the CDNT wait list for their autism assessment or assessment of need and on the wait list for CAMHS for ADHD. As the members are aware, across the country the wait lists for all of those services are incredibly long. Looking at NEPS, most schools only have around two assessments per year. How they divide that among the children must be torturous for them. Depending on the CDNT, the waiting time could be anything from a few months to years. It is the same with CAMHS. That means that kids are never getting the holistic care that they need when they need it, which is in the early years.