Disabilities minister tells HSE to prioritise therapies for children over paperwork

Some 34,000 children are on community health waiting lists

Nicole Rooney, 5, at the launch by minister Anne Rabbitte of the new adult day service in The Deaf Village in Cabra, Dublin. Picture: Iain White

Disabilities minister Anne Rabbitte has ordered the HSE to immediately halt time-consuming paperwork over concerns that this is preventing children with disabilities from receiving the therapy they need.

It comes after the Irish Examiner reported that parents of children with disabilities are being told to attend training courses so they can carry out therapies on their own children who remain on long waiting lists.

With 34,000 children now on community health waiting lists, parents say they have been told that if they do not avail of these courses, their children will be taken off HSE lists for therapies such as speech and language and physiotherapy.

It is understood Ms Rabbitte has now written to the HSE asking that documents that are compiled as part of the Progressing Disability Services (PDS) programme be stopped to free up staff to provide therapies.

Individual family support plans (IFSP), which are sometimes drawn up without any contact with the child, take an average of 12 clinical hours across two or three clinicians, and Ms Rabbitte believes that this time would be better spent working through case files to deliver physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, and other care supports to children.

The minister has also asked to meet officials from the HSE next week on the matter.

'Not good enough'

Hitting out at the HSE, Ms Rabbitte last month said: "It’s simply not good enough that parents are still waiting several months or years to access crucial therapeutic supports for children."

She added that the shift to the new IFSP system, which she has now asked the HSE to stop, had not been fully communicated to parents, causing further "difficulties".

An IFSP sets out the goals for the child and how the family and team are going to work towards them. The HSE states that it must be an ongoing living plan, reviewed as priorities and goals change.

Ms Rabbitte has met with a number of parents and groups in recent months who have voiced frustration that they are now being asked to take part in training courses as their children remain on long waiting lists for therapy appointments.

"Parents are under pressure and some are really struggling to support their children. As I’ve said to the HSE a number of times, their communication with parents, in particular, has been poor in a number of parts of the country," she said.

"The shift to individual family support plans and what these mean for parents hasn’t been made clear. Understandably, for parents, it looks like they’re being asked to do more while therapies don’t appear to be materialising on the ground. 

"This can’t be allowed to continue and I want to see this strain eased."