*Kieran O’Loughlin with his five year old son Jack. Photograph: Natasha Barton
Clare man Kieran O’Loughlin has said he’s “frustrated” by the 18 months his son will have to wait before he can get speech and language therapy.
The Ennis local’s child, Jack, aged 5, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder last year and subsequently received speech and language therapy (SLT) in August. However, Kieran is now being told it will be significant amount of time before his son can access the service again.
“I enquired where he would be on the waiting list and they said it would be 18 months” said Kieran “so it would be towards the end of this year before he would be called again which is just a phenomenal amount of time for a child to be waiting, you know it’s a year and half of their life, when they’re young it’s an awful long time.”
Kieran had previously contacted The Clare Echo last September when he was growing concerned for his son who was awaiting an autism assessment, a waiting list which at the time also had an 18-month backlog containing 154 children from within Clare alone. Kieran noted how Jack’s behaviour was disproving while he waited for the assessment but now, even though he’s received a diagnosis, Kieran has to continue to battle to get Jack the care he needs.
Unfortunately, Jack and Kieran’s situation isn’t unusual, figures given to The Clare Echo by the HSE show that as of February this year 5,698 children are awaiting an assessment for SLT, 85 of those within Clare, with a further 5,538 awaiting their initial SLT, 251 within Clare, and another 7,489, like Jack, awaiting further speech and language therapy, a significant 619 in this county.
The HSE told The Clare Echo this week they are “working to ensure timely access for children requiring therapy services and to reduce waiting times for this important service. Therapists are working diligently to prioritise children of highest clinical need and aim to address longest waiters if possible.
“The HSE recognises the need to address waiting lists for services and this is reflected in our commitment to developing the provision of community services. Community-based care is currently undergoing substantial reform in line with Sláintecare. This will involve a significant re-structuring in how services are currently delivered and will ensure care is provided in an equitable, efficient and integrated way.”
They also highlighted that Covid-19 “posed significant challenges for many service areas, including Speech and Language Therapy over the past two years… Therapy services in the community have had to prioritise the provision of care for those patients identified as having the greatest needs and the highest risk. This has unfortunately had unavoidable negative impacts on waiting lists.”
It was underscored too that a sizable reduction of 27% in SLT waiting lists has occurred over the last 12 months. However, Kieran says families have been abandoning the public health waiting lists in favour of private care which could explain a portion of the reductions. “I’ve even been trying for private and it’s difficult for private as well, they’re so busy now because people are sick of waiting publicly. A lot of them aren’t taking new children at all, they’re just fully booked up” he said.
For children with autism the delays are bad news as missing out on these services during their pre-school years can greatly reduce the amount of progress that is possible to be made later in life. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development which conducts research into autism in the US has said that “Early diagnosis of and interventions for autism are more likely to have major long-term positive effects on symptoms and later skills… the sooner a child gets help, the greater the chance for learning and progress.”
For families with children on the spectrum this means that having to wait up to 18 months isn’t just a matter of patience, it can have significant long-term effects on their children’s development. Kieran is certainly feeling this time pressure as even though Jack received an exemption in 2021 to do an extra year of pre-school, this September he will be starting junior infants and Kieran is concerned that the lack of speech and language therapy will put him at a disadvantage, “Jack is starting primary school in September and should be provided with all the resources he needs to [have] the best chance in school and in life. It won’t give him as good a chance as if he had more speech and language therapy, being able to express himself in school and progress throughout the year” he said.
Kieran believes the government need to be doing more, “this is not going to go away, it’s only going to get worse if we don’t get more funding in there and get more speech and language therapists. It’s the only way to improve the situation” he said.
