Woman with two non-verbal children says CDNT cutbacks 'punishes children'

Michael Bolton

A woman who is a mother to two non-verbal children in the west of Ireland has expressed her disappointment at the cutbacks to their Child Disability Network Team (CDNT).

In Mayo, there is an HSE proposal to cut a Speech and Language Therapist in CDNT three, leaving this area with four therapists, in an area allocated five Speech and Language therapists by the HSE.

The fifth post was vacant but is no longer advertised and has been relocated by the HSE.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, says her child has been waiting three years on a CDNT list.

Speaking to BreakingNews.ie, she questioned how the post can be removed when there are children like her son waiting years for an appointment.

"He went on the list on 22nd September 2022, and I asked if he was the longest on the list, and he said no.

"Considering that we have children waiting over three years for SLT (Speech and Language Therapy), how can the HSE take a post off us?

"We were allocated five posts. Our fifth post is currently vacant. They want to recruit, but they can't because the HSE have taken it.

"Removing approved hours, vacant or not, is removing hours. Hours that potentially could be filled. Vacant posts reflect Government and HSE failures in recruitment and retention.

"Removing the post only punishes children for recruitment failures.

"I am enraged to think that instead of giving us more, they are taking away from us."

A parent to two non-verbal boys aged five and two, long waiting lists have come at an expense to her family.

Due to the long waiting lists, she has had to take a course with the SLT to learn how to further help her son, praising the family's support worker.

However, the knock-on effects of cutbacks have on families.

"The only way that I can do the courses is by not working. How would families manage if they have to work? They wouldn't be able to do that.

"Everyone on the team is a key contact for each family. Every therapist in the CDNT has a number of families, and that is the key contact for families.

"By cutting a post, it means all the others have to carry more. They won't be able to run the courses because they are a member down.

"The basic point is we had five allocated posts, now we only have four. That means our manager can't fill that fifth post. Children waiting over three years waiting are going to be waiting even longer.

"A vacant cut doesn't remove the absence of need for that post. If anything, our CDNTs should be supported more.

"They need more money, they need more services. We need to get rid of the means test for carers.

"I am at home minding my two kids, and I am on carers' benefits. I can only get that for two years. Come next September, I will get nothing while I mind two children who need one-to-one attention.

"Financially, it puts us in a position where paying for private therapies when there is one wage coming into the house. A private session of Speech and Language for an hour is about €75.

"We have two kids and they want you to go weekly; that is a huge cost to any house."

Due to her kids being non-verbal, it is difficult to understand the struggles both her children have.

Often, long nights for herself and her husband, the basics of getting to pre-school or the shops, can turn into a difficult task.

"There are often days when one of them is up all night, for whatever reason I don't know. Sometimes he will wake and just cry.

"He is looking at you, and it is like he is trying to tell you something is wrong. He is good at understanding, so I think maybe a child at school said something nasty, and he can't tell me that.

"When he goes to bed at night, he is holding on to me with tears in his eyes. You can see his eyes are trying to tell me what is wrong, but there is nothing you can do.

"You keep trying to try saying stuff to see what happened. Did somebody call him a name, did somebody hit him, maybe he has got a pain.

"You just keep saying all the things he might have, and try to make them better and hope one of them might be the right one."