Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism
Autism Policy: Discussion (Resumed)
Dr. Olive Healy:
We are looking for our first context, which is air travel and supports to improve air travel experiences of autistic people and their families, within the next two months. We will then focus on the dental setting and then on GP visits. We then move towards university preparation and supports at university as well. We are excited about how we can bring this. We have a website on which some of our supports are available in written form. We hope to move that into more engaging video explainers that will be more accessible for people because, again, stakeholders tell us reading a five-page PDF document is cumbersome. It is a case of being parents and have lots of stressors in their lives. How can they learn this readily and easily? We are creating e-learning modules for parents across different stages of the life span and with differences in the needs and strengths of their children. How can we capitalise on putting this into the hands of parents and accelerating outcomes for their children?