Ms Nicola Cassidy:

When we did a survey in 2021, we found that only 6% of patients had been referred to a psychologist at that time. That is quite shocking because a diagnosis of a life-limiting illness is an awful lot to take on. Many people have to stop working. There are issues around being able to breathe, getting oxygen and comprehending what is ahead. One thinks about one's family. There are not enough psychologists who are part of the specialist care centres. Perhaps one or two centres might have them, if that. The respiratory nurses are the gateway to care. They are amazing because in addition to doing their nursing duties, they provide psychological support. As respiratory nurses are not specifically trained in psychology, ILFA provides bursaries where they can get online training in cognitive behavioural therapy. ILFA does that because when patients reach out to their respiratory nurses in distress, the nurses have a mechanism for helping them. ILFA has delivered that for about four years at this point. We feel we should not have to do that. It should not be an extra burden on the nurses. Thankfully, they are willing to take that on but what we need are clinical psychologists.