Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism

Services and Supports Provided by the State for Autistic People: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Mary Doherty:

No, that was elsewhere. We have members here in Ireland who are medical students, doctors in training and consultants. While some of our members have been rejected from training or medical schools, it is important to say that the majority of our members are working away fine with no issues. We recently did research, which is currently in review, that showed 82% of our members were working with no issues. Neurodiversity in medicine has become a hot topic in the past couple of years. There is an unfortunate and erroneous association, particularly in the UK, between trainees being in difficulty and trainees being autistic or otherwise neurodivergent. For the majority of members, that is not the case at all. When our members run into difficulties, they tend to be in very predictable ways. It is important that we support our members and provide education for the medical workforce and medical educators, who I must say have been really interested in this in the past couple of years. It is providing a solution to challenges that people are facing on a daily basis without actually understanding what are those challenges. That phenomenon exists right across the board, whether in healthcare or education.