Mark Wall (Labour)
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I welcome our guests. Ms O'Kelly and Mr. O'Regan referred to an assessment of need not being required. Many of the families I deal with tell me they are being told they do need an assessment of need. They are being told by clinicians, day in and day out, they will not be able to access services unless they have that piece of paper in their hands. Can it be confirmed again that an assessment of need is not required and can that message be conveyed to the other clinicians putting up these obstacles?

I am sure all Members of these Houses come across this daily. People are told that unless they have an assessment of need done, they will not get into the services. The second issue is that more and more families that come to me are told that they have to take part in parent support classes and family forums. I want to know if this is a change in policy in the HSE. The families tell me that this deprives them of one-to-one services that their children need. Many of the people who are going to these classes come out with a lack of understanding of how they should deal with their children when they come out of the classes because the classes are quite complex. People are left in a situation where they do not know where to go next. Will the witnesses comment on why the HSE seems to be going down the road of parent support classes and family forums to deal with the issues that are arising?

I also want to mention respite care, which is important to families. I want to read a reply that I got about respite care from a constituent last week. It states that disability services endeavour to sanction as many in-house support requests as possible within their defined home supports allocation, which in 2022 is less than €100,000 for all disability service users. It states that there are more than 7,000 children for the children's team to address, in addition to a full adult caseload. It states that in this context, it has to manage the expectations of families who are requesting support. Will the witnesses comment on where respite care stands? Respite care is essential for many families that I deal with, but this is the reply they are getting.

I refer to the launch that Ms O'Kelly said happened in Athy last week. It was influential and it is good that it happened. Where does it go next? I found what was happening at the launch insightful. We were actually going back into communities, where the HSE does its best work. For young people, children with autism and indeed autistic adults, what will healthy communities mean?