Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I will take the last point first. For young people with physical disabilities, including those who are non-verbal, there has always been a huge difficulty with what is called dual diagnosis, where a child has a learning disability and a mental health issue. There is really limited access to mental health services. What we are looking at here is trying to formulate child rights-based legislation that will allow for the services to be provided in a child-centred way. We will need to have the services and resources in place and the professionals available who can understand and work with children in those circumstances. They need to be trained to hear the voice of the child, however that is transmitted. Non-verbal children will often use painting or sound to communicate in some way and there are people who understand how to work with those children and young people, including psychologists, special needs workers and others working in that area. Parents can help a lot as well. It is something in which we really need to invest time and energy. If we work from the single point of view that every child's voice is important in these circumstances, then we need to be able to facilitate those children whether they are blind, deaf, non-verbal or acting out with challenging behaviour. Once they have a mental health issue that necessitates admission to an inpatient unit, that unit needs to be fit for purpose to deal with those children and young people. I would hope there is progression within this proposed legislation to allow that to start happening - to hear those voices properly.

I will ask Mr. Castillo Goncalves to respond to the question on the intermediate person and to expand on our thoughts in that regard.