Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 18 October 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism
Autism Policy and Health: Health Service Executive
Ms Mary O'Kelly:
From our experience on the school inclusion model, we felt therapists working on the model and in the schools could add value along the way. Many of our services in primary care and in the disability sector such as the CDNTs provide these summer camps. One of our big pieces was the hope the therapists who were employed on the school inclusion model would do the thing and work with their primary care and CDNT colleagues, so again to build that integration and robustness around the child. Then knowledge is being brought to wherever the child is transitioning to next because that leap into secondary school and the leap into the senior cycle is so enormous for children. I certainly am an advocate of that. Various agencies have tried it. The Central Remedial Clinic used to run summer camps. The HSE, as I said, runs summer camps. That is what we call them because it is normalised. Kids are used to going to summer camp but it helps with the continuity.