ONE child in Dublin has been waiting more than 13 YEARS for psychology therapy, shocking new figures show.
It comes as teenage disabilities campaigner Cara Darmody urged the Government to take real action to tackle the enormous waiting list for children in need of a range of therapies.
Figures obtained by Social Democrats Cork TD Liam Quaide reveal the shocking practice of children being forced to wait years for therapies and treatments.
A child in Dublin north west is the longest on the waiting list in the HSE system – left lingering 706 weeks for a psychology appointment.
In Galway, a child has been left waiting nine and a half years – 500 weeks – for the same psychology therapy appointment.
The devastating waits are equally as long for other therapies, such as occupational therapy, with one child in north Dublin waiting 502 weeks, while a young child in Meath has been left waiting 452 weeks.
For physiotherapy services, the longest on the waiting list is a child in north Lee, Co Cork, who has been waiting for the therapy for seven years.
Deputy Quaide said he faced a battle just to get this data from the HSE, who were initially only willing to provide him info on how many children were waiting over one year without giving him access to the length of these waits.
Teenager Cara Darmody – who has been campaigning for better services for her brothers who have additional needs – today held a briefing for politicians in Leinster House to highlight the shocking lack of therapies in Ireland for kids.
Under the law, the State is required to provide an assessment of needs for children within six months – however, tens of thousands of children are not getting these checks to establish what therapies they need.
Cara, from Ardfinnan in Co Tipperary, said she wanted to call out the “blatant lawbreaking” of the State by failing to complete assessments on time.
The teen said the crisis over assessments of need has escalated to “a national disgrace and an international embarrassment”.
She was initially motivated to pursue her advocacy because her two brothers, Neil, 12, and John, eight, have autism and severe intellectual disabilities.
Cara said they were “both failed dramatically by the State” in relation to the assessments and services that they received.
However, she stressed that her advocacy is focused on the national picture rather than solely on the experiences of her brothers.
‘TAKEN ABACK’
During the briefing, Cara said that she had met with a Co Tipperary-based psychologist who claimed that “HSE red tape” is preventing her from doing more assessment of needs because an instruction from her local manager has meant she is tied up in supervising all aspects of the work of her junior psychologist colleagues.
Cara said she recently told HSE chief Bernard Gloster about the experience of this psychologist, adding that he was “seriously taken aback” by what he heard.
She said she asked Mr Gloster to launch a brand new, heavily advertised recruitment campaign for therapists and psychologists.
