Trim parents frustrated by the lack of services and supports for their children with additional needs to stage protest

Trim parents frustrated by the lack of services and supports for their children with additional needs will stage a protest in the town this Saturday, 18th July.

The peaceful protest, which takes place in front of Trim Courthouse at 3pm, has been organised by parent Mandy Clarke-Garry to highlight the lack of services being provided through the local children's disability network team (CDNT), the absence of support for parents and how the system is failing children and their families.

With frequent staff changes and a number of positions vacant within the Trim CDNT, Mandy said children are not getting the services they are entitled to and they cannot stand by and allow the situation to continue and are standing together to fight for the services their children deserve.

"We are families who are tired of excuses not solutions, no support from CDNT, endless waiting lists, refusals from CAMHS, no access to a key worker and failure of early intervention," she said.

Spreading the word about the protest on Facebook, Mandy wrote: "As a mother of a child with additional needs who has gone unheard by the Trim CDNT for a number of years, I am reaching out to other families who may be experiencing the same silence and frustration.

"This is not about seeking special treatment for our child. It is about fighting for every child and every family in the Trim area who deserves the support they have been promised.

"The lack of services has had a devastating impact on our family and has left our child with irreversible consequences. What is even more heartbreaking is that the very people who are meant to support families often don't reply at all. The response is always the same: 'staff capacity' and 'huge service demand'."

Like many parents who have a child with additional needs, Mandy says everything seems to be a fight. This protest is about the lack of services but parents also face many challenges when it comes to accessing school places for their children.

Mandy's daughter Jade is 11, is non verbal and has autism. She outlined that last September their family went into crisis mode as Jade's hormones began to kick in and she couldn't communicate what was going on and Mandy feels there was little or no support as they struggled to deal with Jade. They knew Jade needed to see a psychologist but she said CAMHS (Child and Adoloscent Mental Health Service) would not accept referrals for children with autism.

After dozens of phone calls, and emails and being passed from Trim CDNT to CAMHS back to Trim CDNT, they eventually got seen by a CAMHS Intellectual Disability pyschologist.

Jade was to continue with other services through CDNT which includes the occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, behaviour therapy, and there is also supposed to be a liaison nurse, but Mandy said staff turnover is "absolutely shocking". If they do get an appointment they rarely see the same person twice and each time they have to get to know's Jade's case again.

"I feel something has to be done. I have so many friends and know so many people in Trim with two and three year old kids waiting on assessments. They are not getting early intervention and when their kids get to 11 it is going to be far worse for them. I do feel because they missed out on that early intervention, it is permanent damage that has been done to the child. It seems to be all ten and 11 year old that this aggression is coming from but it is pure frustration, lack of services and no communication tools.

"When I put the post up on facebook about the protest, the amount of people who have messaged me from Trim who are two and three years waiting for the first initial assessment for their children. These children four to five and haven't even been diagnosed and they are non verbal children.

"Early intervention is key, so they don't end up in our situation isolated in the home, unable to go anywhere. We have come to terms this is our life, but I feel so sorry for parents coming along. They don't know what is ahead of them. They are fighting for services, they are fighting for school places. Their kids have yet to hit puberty and that is when the bomb explodes."

The HSE has been contacted for comment.