HSE referring children to voluntary- funded clinic

The Health Service Executive is advising parents of Clare children with speech and language issues to contact a voluntary-funded clinic for therapy because the waiting list for state-provided care is so long, it has been claimed this week.
Ann Norton, manager of the Barefield-based Clare Crusaders Clinic, said they are currently dealing with 160 children for speech and language therapy, up from its previous quota of 135. “This increase is purely because there has been an increase in parents phoning requesting our speech and language services. Our services are for children with special needs, including autism, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other disabilities, who have a speech and language issue as a result of the underlying disability,” Ms Norton explained.
“The speech and language services we provide are not supposed to be for children without any other issue other than a speech and language issue. However, because parents are frustrated and upset by the time they phone us we take on their children for speech and language therapy,” Ms Norton stated.
“These parents have told us, that they were advised by the HSE to contact us for speech and language treatment, because there is no guarantee how soon they will be assessed through the HSE service,” she revealed.
It is understood that waiting lists for speech and language assessments with the HSE can be as long as 16 to 18 months, and even after assessment, parents can expect to wait months again before their child will receive any speech therapy.
“Expecting parents to wait this long for their child’s speech to be assessed is unfair. Months of opportunities for improving a child’s speech and language would be missed in that amount of time,” Ms Norton added.
The Clare Champion provided the HSE with a series of questions in relation to speech and language services in Clare, but no response had been received at the time of going to press on Wednesday evening. However, a health authority spokesperson indicated that a response could be issued later.
Ms Norton said the Clare Crusaders Clinic takes children with special needs for very early speech and language therapy from the age of three months.
“To get a baby as young as that is fantastic, because our therapists are able to help from such an early age. It is not acceptable that a child with a speech and language issue would not receive necessary treatment for as long as the HSE is making people wait.
“It is totally unacceptable that because they cannot manage to cut down their waiting list, failing to provide an adequate speech and language service, that they are offloading children with speech and language issues onto the Clare Crusaders Clinic. We are a charitable organisation. The clinic is not for children with speech and language issues only,” she said.
She has determined that due to the failures in the system, the clinic has taken 25 children on with no underlying special needs, for speech and language treatment, purely because they want to help these parents and their children.
Ms Norton added that she has asked the HSE how many speech and language therapists the HSE has covering Clare, but nobody has given her an answer.
“If they don’t have enough, they should hire more, or at least hire one speech and language therapist to clear the assessment backlog. It is my understanding that a vacancy for a full-time speech and language therapist has not been filled since the summer of 2009.
“I’ve been told that the HSE is looking for a senior speech and language therapist to fill this position, but that they can’t get one.  If they can’t get them locally, why can’t they look elsewhere? It is simply not good enough. Children are entitled to these services, and should not have to fall on a charitable organisation to provide these services, when our services are already stretched,” Ms Norton said.