Parents at the Holy Family School for the Deaf in Cabra have launched an Open Letter addressed to the Government and the HSE urging that the threatened removal of the school’s on-site Speech and Language Therapist be reversed.
The open letter, addressed to the Head of Disability Services in HSE as well as Ministers for Minister for Disability, Health, and Education, warns that the “impact on our children’s development, education and well being will be enormous”.
“As you know the Holy Family School for the Deaf in Cabra is being threatened with the loss of its on-site specialist Speech & Language Therapist,” the letter says.
“We are unanimously opposed and deeply fearful of the impact from the loss of the specialist SLT service at the Holy Family School for the Deaf in Cabra. This is a specialist therapy for deaf children that cannot be simply replaced by treatment in the community.”
“The impact on our children’s development, education and well being will be enormous.”
The parents say that the impact will arise because of the absence of any specialist speech and language service in the community.
“The HSE has never developed a deaf specialist team for children with our community health services. Most children will require interpretative services at each appointment. This will be an additional cost for the HSE and in some locations across the country, access to interpreter services is very limited or non-existent,” they wrote.
They also argued that removing Speech Therapy from school would lead to days lost out of school. “Many children have to travel long distances on a daily basis from as far as Kildare, Louth, Meath and beyond and it is simply unacceptable that they would be regularly forced to choose between attending an appointment in the area where they live or going to school,” they said.
This would also lead to a “break in the continuity of service” where “continuity of service is absolutely necessary in ensuring the continued progress and development of any child with an additional need,” they claimed.
“The speech and language therapist is a critically important specialist post, helping to meet the needs of deaf and hard of hearing students. The removal of this post and integrated service will significantly impact on children who already face additional barriers, not faced by other children, as they seek to live full independent lives and achieve their ambitions,” the parents said.
“We are asking the Government and the HSE to ensure that Holy Family does not lose its specialist SLT within the reconfiguration of HSE disability services. Minister Rabbitte we are very grateful to you for your support to our school to date. However, we now need to ensure that your public commitments are implemented by the HSE.”
“We urge you, on behalf of children in the Holy Family and deaf and hard of hearing children across the country, to follow through on your public comments on 21st March 2021 with confirmation from the HSE that continuation of specialist on-site provision be permanent, and in a manner that properly meets their educational, social and therapeutic needs.”