The families of up to 200 Donegal children who suffer from autism are facing an anxious wait over a review which could see an important home help service cut.
Donegal Autism Services provides the Family Support Service to help the development of children with autism. Families who receive the service say it is vital in helping them to manage the strict routines and challenging behaviour of children.
They say they are already receiving less support than other parts of the country where families can receive up to ten hours a week while the norm here is just two hours a week per child.
The mother of one family which has already had to do without the service after their carer went on maternity leave, said it had placed great strain on them. While the service has been restored the mother said periods without the service had an impact on their home life. "We are supposed to be one of the richest countries in Europe and particularly in a country where people have to pay to go to the doctor, we have a health service that cannot fund basic needs for people with special needs." Another mother said she feared her daughter was going to be abandoned because of a lack of funds.
Letter to parents
In a letter to parents the HSE said it was carrying out a review of the service as the number of children benefitting from it had increased from 20 to 30 to around 200. Donegal Autism Services says other options of home, community or respite provision could be recommended as an alternative. The HSE said in the letter it is experiencing recruitment challenges regarding maternity and sick leave replacements.
Sinn Féin’s Clr. Padraig McLochalinn said the review of services was the result of cut backs to services. "This is another case of cut backs under the radar. We are electing governments to govern and with government comes responsibility and these agencies like the HSE are buffers for these cuts."
In statement released to the Donegal Democrat the HSE said the service "must be delivered on a targeted basis to address specific individual needs," adding it was mapping individual client needs in an effort to ensure that each child receives the support they require".
This article by Declan Magee (reporter) appeared in the Donegal Democrat, 11 September 2008
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