Campaigners have rejected the HSEs claim that rising waiting lists for speech and language therapy are linked to the coronavirus.

Figures obtained by Cork TD Sean Sherlock have revealed that around 25,000 children are now witing on an initial assessment or initial appointment.

A further 18,500 are awaiting further therapy with more than 6,000 waiting longer than one year.

In its response to Deputy Sherlock, the HSE said the COVID-19 was “posing significant challenges” for all therapy services and pledge to keep the “evolving and unprecedented situation” under review.

On The Hard Shoulder this evening, the Interim CEO of Inclusion Ireland, Lorraine Dempsey said the issues were there long before the virus.

“I’ve Been at this for years and really haven’t seen any major improvement,” she said.

“We are not even looking for a Rolls Royce service here; we are looking for a service that will be child-centred and meet children’s needs.

“I have been talking about this for about ten years at this stage and others long, long before me had started this but it is just shameful at this stage to see that the lists are going longer rather than the other way around and COVID is a minor part in that.”

Investment

Ms Dempsey said the redeployment of therapists to COVID-19 testing and tracing may have compounded the problem; however, the underlying issues are “absolutely historic” – with no new staff hired between the financial crash and 2014 and “piecemeal” investment ever since.

She said children face years of waiting even after they get their initial assessment – with some entering adulthood while on the lists.

This can have a “substantial” impact on the child’s development, she said.

“If you imagine, you have a child who is three, maybe going into play school and they flag up that there are some possible developmental issues with the child,” she said.

“You apply for an assessment of need, you might wait two or three or even four years before that is carried out and you have a service statement and then you are getting on to an intervention waiting list.

“If the teachers are struggling with kind of methods to try and support your child in the school setting and they don’t have access to speech and language therapist or an occupational therapist then you are just adding to that pressure in school, where the child is struggling and the teachers just don’t have that support available to them.

“The same thing in the home context, children’s emotional and physical development can be totally delayed because there is not that intervention to support the parents on a day-to-day basis.

“Without that guidance from therapists to be able to support the child’s development, we are kind of swimming in waters that are unfamiliar to us, particularly for new parents.”

Development

Ms Dempsey said an inability to communicate can translate into extremely challenging behaviours including self-harm.

“What that child actually needs is speech and language therapist and occupational therapy to help ground them and give them a means of communicating with their parents,” she said.

“Inclusion Ireland have been banging on about waiting lists for years and we really don’t see the improvement.”

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