Ms Aisling McGrory:

I can take this because I have been involved in CDNTs and I worked through the PDS when it was about early intervention. I have also worked in adult disability services. Referrals to me might come from a school or parent or from the CDNT team. Irrespective of whether a referral is from a parent, PHN, doctor or school, it might contain something that triggers me or my manager to say the family concerned could do with social work support – a wraparound service that involves going to the house, seeing what is happening, what services can be applied for and how to make the family’s life that bit easier.

As has been said, when families get these diagnoses, they are often not prepared. They are unsure about the future and what it is going to look like. They wonder what will happen when the child turns 18. It is about what the various transitions, initially at birth and then when starting school, moving to secondary school and moving to third-level education, look like for them. Our involvement depends on capacity. My role is within the special schools team. Anybody eligible for the two special schools where I come from in Donegal could have access to the team. I am the social worker on that team. Regarding the other children in respect of the CDNT, it depends on the social worker on the team. We also have social care workers, and they are very involved and might also pick up cases. When they feel there is a higher level of need, the social workers can get involved with the families.

We have been doing very specific piece work, and that is why I advocate for social workers for the teams on the new pilot projects. Initially, it will involve OTs, SLTs and behavioural therapists, which are 100% needed.

I too echo what my colleagues are saying about the communication issue. We find that if you have therapists within the Department of education and therapists in the HSE, or whatever service they are employed in, you have issues around sharing information and data protection systems. In CDNTs, we have an online system being rolled out. It is an information management system, which means your manager can go on and that psychology and social work can go on, and then you can actually talk to a family about the services, what is happening, the referrals, who the family has seen, the relevant therapies and the plan in place.

Often families find this very overwhelming. We know the system, the HSE, the schools, and the various systems we are involved in, but families do not and struggle to navigate. There is a changing population, too. There are many newcomers in Ireland and our schools, which means working with interpreters. A lot of the families concerned are not familiar with our systems and where to go.