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Mother fights for speech therapy

Thursday, 08 May 2008

The single mother of a 16-year-old who suffers from Downs Syndrome has slammed the HSE for failing to provide her daughter with speech and language therapy, which has left her virtually unable to communicate with other people. Leslie McCabe lives with her mother Geraldine in Jobstown, Tallaght. Apart from a brief six week group session, she has not had access to regular speech therapy. Ms McCabe, who is a lone parent, told Southside People that Leslie badly needs appropriate access to intensive one-to-one speech and language therapy. Leslie attends special education at St John of God's in Islandbridge. Ms McCabe claimed she has continuously contacted the school that Leslie has attended since 2006 in an attempt to secure therapy for her daughter. “Every three or four weeks I rang the school and asked them when Leslie would be getting speech therapy and the answer is that they don’t know,” Ms McCabe said. “I am still doing that.” Describing the severity of her daughter’s speech difficulties, Geraldine said that trying to understand her was sometimes like a “guessing game”. “Leslie has now gone to the stage where if she meets a stranger and tries to have a conversation she will just stand there and won’t open her mouth at all,” Ms McCabe said. “She switches off because she knows people won’t understand her.” Ms McCabe insisted that her daughter was not being afforded her rights. “They are talking about equal rights for people with disabilities but where are Leslie’s equal rights?” she asked. “The answer that they [the HSE] give you is that so many millions has been spent on these services. “But I am sure that there are many people out there that are not seeing where it is going.” In 2006, Geraldine McCabe got in touch with Dublin South West TD Pat Rabbitte (Lab) in a desperate attempt to try to get her daughter the speech and language therapy that she needs. Speaking in the Dail recently about Leslie’s case, Deputy Rabbitte said that although he had been in touch with the HSE since 2006 in an attempt to secure speech and language tuition for Leslie, the executive had not provided him with a satisfactory reply. “I am bound to say that I can see no reason for optimism given the tenor of my exchanges directly with the HSE,” he said. However, he pointed out that as St John of God’s, Islandbridge had a speech and language therapy post attached to their service, Leslie should be able to access therapy there. Ms McCabe added that a member of staff at the school had written to Deputy Rabbitte recently to inform him that Leslie would receive speech and language therapy in four to five weeks’ time. However, she said she was not given assurances as to how long her daughter would receive the therapy or if she would receive the one to one therapy that she requires When Southside People contacted the HSE, they declined to comment and said the issue was a matter for St John of God’s in Islandbridge. However, St John of God’s was unavailable for comment on the matter.