Clinic boss challenges HSE plans for child disability services

A HSE plan to restructure children’s disability services nationwide, modelled on its work in the Mid-West, has been challenged by the head of a free therapy centre, which is receiving referral requests for children living over 240km away.

Clare Crusaders Children’s Clinic provides free speech and language therapy and specialist treatment such as occupational therapy to more than 350 children with special needs in Co Clare, as many families say they are waiting too long for public appointments. The clinic’s managing director, Ann Norton, pointed to growing waiting lists in the Mid-West and said that the number of Clare children with special needs attending the centre has jumped from 240 to 400 in the last year.

Ms Norton, who was recently elected as a county councillor, has also revealed the clinic is now getting referral requests from parents of children with special needs living over 240km away, on the other side of the country.