World Autism Awareness Day

MarkR

Is today. Places around the world are being lit up blue to increase awareness.

There are events around the country today, so keep an eye out.

starbelgrade

I heard an interview this morning on Newstalk with an American lady who lives in Ireland & suspected that her son was autistic, so they brought him to a specialist in the States & had him diagnosed.

When she returned to Ireland, the HSE told her that they wouldn't recognise the diagnosis & she'd have to put him on a year long waiting list to be tested here. They completely ignored the fact that the specialist in the States is one of the leading specialists in the world for diagnosing autistic children.

She also went on to explain the rather poor set-up by the HSE in terms of using people who have zero qualifications in the area of autism, working in the field & that despite the many various groups around the country working in this area, that there is no co-ordinated overall approach, just a kind of ad-hoc shambles.

It's great that there is an Awareness Day for this & even better when you hear some real life awareness issues which highlight the short fallings of the care of the state for autistic children.

When you consider that early diagnosis of autism is one of the key factors in enabling autistic children to help them become functioning adults, then hear of the abysmal tardiness of the HSE in providing diagnosis, you have to wonder what the hell they are playing at.

Faolchu

my own brother faced the same issues with his son, teh DoES and HSE ignored diagnoses, put him on long waiting lists, then even after teh diagnosis was made said there wasn't the facilities or treatment necessary and the family would basically have to suck it up

CardBordWindow

World Autism Awareness Day : A worthy cause to have a 'day' for. There's enough gimmicky ones, like World Cleavage Day.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i've been watching the shield all weekend
i'm aware enough

MarkR

starbelgrade wrote: »

I heard an interview this morning on Newstalk with an American lady who lives in Ireland & suspected that her son was autistic, so they brought him to a specialist in the States & had him diagnosed.

When she returned to Ireland, the HSE told her that they wouldn't recognise the diagnosis & she'd have to put him on a year long waiting list to be tested here. They completely ignored the fact that the specialist in the States is one of the leading specialists in the world for diagnosing autistic children.

She also went on to explain the rather poor set-up by the HSE in terms of using people who have zero qualifications in the area of autism, working in the field & that despite the many various groups around the country working in this area, that there is no co-ordinated overall approach, just a kind of ad-hoc shambles.

It's great that there is an Awareness Day for this & even better when you hear some real life awareness issues which highlight the short fallings of the care of the state for autistic children.

When you consider that early diagnosis of autism is one of the key factors in enabling autistic children to help them become functioning adults, then hear of the abysmal tardiness of the HSE in providing diagnosis, you have to wonder what the hell they are playing at.

It's all true. HSE doesn't know their ass from their elbows. Took a year for my son to get diagnosed (missing a lot of the common traits - borderline case really)

I have letters from the HSE saying that due to budget cutbacks, they couldn't offer any services. They denied sending the letter later.

Local TD friend made a call and suddenly we were getting meetings left right and centre. Still poor though. You unfortunately get what you pay for. We go to private speech therapy, and private occupational therapy.

Fortunately there is an excellent ASD school in Limerick, and he got a place there at the start of the year. He's making brilliant progress, and we're really proud of him

CreepingDeath

Shouldn't this be posted to the "World of Warcraft" forum too ?

Afehogan

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Shouldn't this be posted to the "World of Warcraft" forum too ?

What a small minded comment to make.