A new advocacy group has been set up in Donegal for parents and guardians of children with disabilities and additional needs.
Special Needs Parents Donegal (SNPD) was formed after confirmation from the HSE there is only one speech therapist currently covering the county.
“We are parents of children with varying additional/special needs living in Donegal,” a spokesperson for the group said.
In response to the news of the shortage of therapists, SNPD recently started a closed Facebook group: https://m.facebook.com/groups/689752236342073/
Within a few days they had over 380 parents join, engage and support each other.
“We are hoping to encourage parents to join our page and become one united loud voice in Donegal,” the spokesperson added.
A meeting has been arranged for mid-October between HSE management, local TDs and parent representatives.
“In preparation for this meeting, we plan to survey parents about their children’s needs and push on the HSE/ Government to work on what they can do for us, our children, in the short-medium term. The old age excuse of recruitment is just not acceptable. Our children cannot wait for senior HSE management to figure out the problems with recruitment and retention.
Our children need therapeutic input from across all disciplines now.”
The group will be launching their survey this week and they need as many parents as possible to get on board and help make their children’s voice count.
“We also need the numbers to make this data valid and reflect the views of parents throughout the county.”
The link survey will be on the Facebook closed group, however, there is also an email address for those who want to access it that way. The email is snpndonegal@gmail.com
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