Today in the newspaper, Wayne O’Connor and Ali Bracken shed light on the immensely challenging conditions faced by families with special needs children, highlighting the State’s apparent disregard for their well-being.
Additionally, we report on tense exchanges between leading officials at the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health regarding the funding of the healthcare system, which amounts to billions. Through the bureaucratic language, this report reveals how the struggling health and social care services in our country are financed.
The shocking and heart-wrenching details can be found in a new report compiled by the Special Needs Schools and Classes Parents’ Group, which will be presented to TDs and senators this week. This report serves as an exposé of the current scandal: the State’s failure to provide services and support for special needs children with educational or acute needs.
Audrey Dore-Geraghty, a woman from Wexford, shares her family’s story of enduring years of “systematic neglect” by the health service. Her nine-year-old son is severely autistic and potentially schizophrenic, and Audrey conveys her complex emotions, saying, “This is my child, a child I love. But I’m also scared of him.”
The health services in the south-east are well aware of the Dore-Geraghty family’s ordeal, openly admitting that long waiting times and staff shortages lead to inadequate services that fail to meet the expectations of families or their own staff.
The issue arises from the fact that children with the most complex needs, who should have access to a school-based summer program, are denied this opportunity. The Department of Education lacks the contractual authority to compel special-needs schools to offer such a service during summer months, despite a doubling of funding to €40m.
This situation exemplifies a classic case of one government department trying to shift responsibility to another, both avoiding blame for a pressing issue that could be resolved through cohesive thinking and utilizing a small portion of the €30bn health budget.
We challenge the officials involved to read the account of Audrey Dore-Geraghty and other parents who face the daily consequences of a service that is clearly inadequate.
On page 21, columnist Colin Murphy discusses a captivating trilogy of plays by Sean O’Casey currently captivating audiences at the Abbey Theatre. Murphy states, “History plays are never just about history: they are always about today. O’Casey was ostensibly writing about the near past of the revolution, but he was really writing about the failed — or failing — state he saw around him in its wake.”
The same accusation can be made regarding the special needs children in our country. The State is being accused of a disgraceful failure to support these children and their families.
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