Call for improved disability services in Cavan
Eight assessment of needs completed on time in two years
A protest highlighting the “massive lack” of disability services in Cavan will take place this Saturday, July 11, at Cavan Courthouse.
This will be the seventh protest since last August organised by local parents who say they have received little to no support for their children with additional needs.
These parents are calling for HSE Primary Care, Enable Ireland and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to provide crucial early intervention support, including regular psychology, occupational therapy (OT) and speech and language therapy (SLT) appointments for their children, along with proper funding, school places and staffing services.
“We’re not going to stop fighting,” says Serena Dawson, one of the protest organisers.
“Early intervention is such a massive thing for children. It’s not happening and it’s just not good enough,” she continues, adding that children are “being left behind”.
Serena has three boys, who each have “totally different” additional needs, and have all been on waiting lists for psychology, SLT and OT appointments for years.
Her eldest son is eight and a half years old was first put on a list for therapy on November 12, 2019. He has had a handful of one-to-one “scattered” OT appointments, which have “really done nothing” for him because ongoing appointments and therapies are needed.
Serena’s middle child will turn six in July and is yet to have a one-to-one appointment; and her youngest, who is almost four, is non-verbal and has been on an SLT waiting list since March 16, 2023.
“How you can leave children who are non-verbal on waiting lists for speech and language with no support is beyond me,” Serena says.
Aside from receiving support from other families, Serena has been paying for private therapies for her sons, which is a “struggle” in a cost of living crisis.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous the cost of everything but we’re at a point, if we don’t get these supports for our children now, we’ll be living with the what ifs - if they would have ever been able to talk, where would they have been if they got these supports?”
The problem, she adds, is worse in Cavan as surrounding counties are getting some one-to-one therapy supports.
“Cavan seems to be a massive black hole altogether and we need them to start listening and providing the support that people with disabilities need. It’s waiting list after waiting list.”
Acknowledging that parents need to be kept informed, Serena outlines how parents are given educational courses without receiving any follow ups and are expected to go home and be able to “be all these things” for their children who may have different needs.
Having taken to the streets “so many times”, Serena finds it “heartbreaking” to meet so many people with similar experiences.
“You have people in their seventies and eighties, you have younger people who are all going through the same thing and it’s been going on for so long now. I don’t understand how nothing is changing.”
She also finds it frustrating to have to fight for support. “We should not have to be taking to the street to fight for these services and our children’s basic human rights,” says Serena.
Similar protests, she says, will continue until parents’ voices are heard and demands are met.
“We’re going to continue to shout and be out there as much as we can until someone starts to listen to us and something changes.”
“Our children deserve the support, we’re not asking for special treatment, we’re asking for equality.”
Organisers are encouraging as many people as possible to come out and support them and participants are asked to gather outside Cavan Courthouse at 10am on Saturday, July 11.