Dáil debates

Thursday, 14 November 2019

Progressing Children's Disability Services: Statements

 

4:00 pm

Photo of Fiona O'LoughlinFiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government continues to fall way short in delivering for children with disabilities. I know that as a sibling of someone with a disability. Long waiting lists and long waiting times seem to be embedded in the system we have, and they undermine the policy of early intervention. It is hugely important that we have the opportunity to give children the intervention they need at an early stage in their lives because the reality for children and for families of children with disabilities is that once they get the diagnosis there is a lot for them to deal with in that. As soon as the families begin to grapple with and understand what they are dealing with, they obviously want to get the best possible path forward for their children. The waiting lists we have leave an awful lot to be desired. There have been a lot of strategy announcements but unfortunately, the effects and benefits of those strategies do not seem to be making their way down to those who need them. The 100 extra therapist positions that were promised in 2018 are not in place. Of those that were promised at the end of September 2019, only 22 are in place. We need to have the number of therapists that have been committed to put in place.

The figures we received recently on the overdue assessments of need under the Disability Act 2005 detailed that they rose from 3,568 to 3,768 as of the end of June this year. That is really disgraceful. On the long waiting times for therapies, I want to speak specifically about the situation in Kildare and in Laois-Offaly in terms of speech and language services. The current waiting time for initial assessment is about 33 weeks. As of April 2019, there were 591 children awaiting speech and language services in the Kildare west Wicklow area. In Laois-Offaly, there were 424. Our chronic shortage of HSE speech and language therapists means children are waiting months for an appointment and are losing precious months, weeks and days in their language development. Being able to communicate is a basic human right and being able to develop one's communication skills to the best of one's ability should be a basic human right.

On occupational therapy, there are a total of 910 children in the Kildare west Wicklow region waiting for occupational therapy assessment or intervention. A shocking 80% of children are waiting approximately 30 months to be seen and the remaining 20% are seen within 18 months, depending on staffing resources. In Laois-Offaly, the waiting list is almost 1,600, a frightening number.

On mental health services, there are now 100 children in the Kildare west Wicklow location who have been waiting more than 52 weeks for initial appointments to see a child psychologist. That is frightening. In a reply to a parliamentary question I had at the start of this month, I was advised the psychology service in the HSE was hoping to fill a position for a psychologist in Kildare town by 2020. There is nobody there at this point in time. As a county, Kildare has been hard hit with many families having experienced shortfalls in our mental health services in the past and it us up to make sure these shortfalls are not repeated over and over again.

On physiotherapy, 509 children are waiting in Kildare, 70 of whom are waiting more than 12 months. Physiotherapy is something it is difficult to wait long periods of time for. There are 560 on the waiting list in Laois-Offaly, with 100 of those waiting more than 12 months. It goes without saying that many parents have contacted me in huge frustration with the delays. Huge concerns linger over how long more they will have to wait. One mum told me the other day she has been waiting over four months and she has been told it will be another 18 months before her daughter is seen. She has opted for private care now but she had to borrow the money to do so. Access to services has a big impact on parents because they are getting completely stressed and they feel they are failing their children. That is very difficult. The system is failing vulnerable children and families.

There is plenty more I could say but I am conscious the Minister of State has given me some of his time and I appreciate that. The last point I will make is on the absence of progress in children's disability network teams since 2016. The HSE service plans for the last four years have stated that work to reconfigure the children's disability services into geographically-based children's disability network teams is under way but unfortunately we do not seem to be seeing any progress with this. We have to do better. We have to support our children with disabilities, their families and the support services that support them.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.