A Meath mum slammed the HSE after two of her children were left in limbo after being diagnosed with disabilities.
Rachel Martin said she founded FUSS (Families Unite for Services and Support) Ireland after two of her children were left in limbo due to the lack of support.
Hundreds of parents are set to take to the streets of Dublin to demand urgent action to address the crisis within children's disability services in the HSE.
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Rachel told Dublin Live: "My son Noah, who has autism, was discharged from the old system at the age of six.
"His discharge report recommended speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and a psychology follow-up. But it's been two and half years and we've heard nothing from the HSE."
Rachel's four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism and sensory processing disorder privately last year after they decided to forego the HSE's long waiting lists.
She added: "She was seen once as part of her review where they did a play-based assessment to decide which service the child goes into.
"At that meeting, I was told she was too complex for primary care and not complex enough for CDNT (Children’s Disability Network Team). Which means, she’s nowhere."
Rachel, who founded FUSS Ireland, said the protest will take place at the GPO in Dublin on Saturday at 2 pm.
She said: "There are on average nearly 30% of unfilled staff positions in every of the 91 disability teams. Some of them are up to 50% no staff. Where I am in Meath, there are 4 teams and there’s just one psychologist for the 14 and that’s about 1,100 children.
"From my perspective, there’s no real accountability from the HSE in terms of their failings, in terms of how their disability services aren’t working and they’re not acknowledging it
"From our point of view, we’ve asked for a workforce planning strategy so they can recruit and retain staff.
"The HSE lost 2,000 staff last year. But they’re not acknowledging why they’re haemorrhaging staff nor are they dealing with it."
Rachel said that there in the five weeks since the last protest, parents have not seen "any sort of real change or any commitment to change".
A spokesperson for the HSE said: "The HSE acknowledges that the transition to CDNT services has been challenging in some areas and that this has been stressful for children with disabilities and their families.
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"The HSE is committed to working with the Department of Health, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth, the Minister of State for Disabilities and all key stakeholders to address particular areas of concern."
They added that a staff census and workforce review was undertaken in October 2021 and the report "provided valuable information on the number of staff working in the CDNTs by discipline and grade".
They added: "This information will allow targeted workforce planning by the HSE in consultation with the Children’s Disability Network Managers to reinforce the skill mix of their teams to accommodate local population needs.
"The HSE continues to explore a range of options to support the recruitment of essential staff across all aspects of the health services. In addition, the HSE works collaboratively with the CDNT Lead Agencies to progress recruitment initiatives for these teams."
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