Minister challenged on crisis in local disabilities services

A local TD has said it is not good enough, and not possible for parents to fulfil the role of teacher, occupational therapist, speech and language therapist while at the same time being expected to work to foot the bill for private therapies.

Sinn Féin TD for Cavan Monaghan, Matt Carthy, hwas speaking following a Dáil ‘Topical Issues’ debate with the Minister with responsibility for Disability Services, Hildergarde Naughton in the Dáil last week.

Deputy Carthy remarked that parents are at their wits end and face enough challenges without having to go through TDs offices to secure to vital services for their children, due to what can only be described as radio-silence from the HSE.

"In Monaghan and Cavan we have CDNTs that are at crisis point. In March, in a response to a parliamentary question I received from the HSE, it was confirmed at least 12 posts were unfilled. These ranged from social workers, speech and language therapists, psychologists, OTs and across virtually every discipline," he said. “Although I have not received the information, I suspect the situation is worse in County Cavan because the numbers of parents who are contacting my office at absolute crisis point is increasing all the time.

“In County Monaghan this is an issue that has been getting steadily worse in respect of the length of time people are expected to wait for appointments and then the routine in which appointments are offered. There is a pattern with many families who contact me. The families contact us to let us know they are waiting on OT, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy or other appointments, in some cases for years, without hearing a dickey bird. They contact our office and we contact the CDNT. In some cases, an appointment is offered fairly quickly and there is a pattern of a number of appointments within a short period of time."

Minister Naughton replied by saying that CDNTs and change in disabilities service is an "absolute priority".

"The waiting lists are far too long," she admitted. "There is an issue around therapists. We are doing our recruitment drives at a domestic and international level. Last year, my colleague, Deputy O'Donovan, when he was Minister for higher education, put in place an extra 150 therapy places through our higher education institutions and we will be doing at least that again this coming September. We are also looking at therapy assistant posts and how they can support our CDNTs to ensure our children and adults are getting the therapies they deserve and need. As the Deputy will know, I am also working my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, regarding therapies going directly into our special schools and eventually into special classes in mainstream schools. That will also help to ensure that those children most in need - or some of them - are getting access to therapies. I found instances in my last brief in special education going into special schools where a child would not have seen a therapist. That is just not acceptable."

However she did say the government has provided for an extra 272 whole-time equivalents within CDNTs across the country- more than a 20% increase- but still stated: "We need to do much more. I am certainly open to suggestions as to how we can ensure we have a greater supply of those therapies be it occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. I am engaging with the HSE, including Mr. Bernard Gloster, and the Department on what else we can do about the assessment of need process. I am sure the Deputy has found in his own area that it is not just about getting the assessment of need."

Deputy Cathy told the minister that he is "embarrassed" as an elected representative, when dealing with parents who are at their "absolute wit's end trying to be all things to their children. As well as being parents, they are also expected in some cases to be teachers. They are absolutely expected to be OTs, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists," he said.

Minister Naughton concluded by saying that pre-Estimate discussions with the Ministers for public expenditure and Finance for the upcoming budget are scheduled.

"What we all need to see is an increase in the budget and support for our day, respite and residential services right across the country to ensure that there is a good geographical spread and that, no matter where one is living, access to the disability services one requires is not based on a postcode lottery. That will require capital and current spending."