Health

AsIAm received the findings from RTÉ Prime Time Investigates into the Department of Health’s covert legal strategy with dismay. 

We made a detailed submission to Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, as part of its formal investigation into the programme’s allegations and wider review around the Department’s conduct.

Download the submission here or read it in full below 

Autistic people are at a significantly higher risk of bullying and harassment than their neurotypical peers. These experiences, combined with heightened levels of anxiety in the autistic community, means that bullying is likely to have an adverse effect on the mental health of autistic pupils in the school system. AsIAm’s submission to the Joint Sub-Committee on Mental Health aims to suggests constructive approaches to address this.

To download the submission click here or read it in full below. 

Every Child Counts Report shows two-thirds of respondents are dissatisfied with HSE services and 40% said that their autistic children lost key skills during the pandemic

The report is a quantitative analysis capturing the experiences and opinions of the many families in Ireland who have an autistic child and seeks to capture the voices of the autism community in accessing support and services from the Health Service Executive (HSE).

While AsIAm received considerable engagement with this study – with 454 responses to an online questionnaire – we would qualify, from the outset, that these findings are only a snapshot of a problem on a much larger scale.

Every Child Counts exclusively focuses on experiences with public healthcare access, support, and services and is the first such survey for AsIAm’s Community Support Team. Key findings include:

•   Two-thirds of parents and guardians surveyed have had to wait two years or more to receive an autism diagnosis for their child.

•   Over half felt very dissatisfied with the HSE support services for their autistic children. 

•   Almost four in five said that they were not receiving any support from either the Early Intervention or School-Age Going Teams.

You can download the report here or read it in full below.

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