‘Absolutely shocking’: St Killian's school therapist was moved to covid-19 vaccine rollout

One of the therapists who had been providing support for pupils in St Killian’s Special School in Mayfield was retrained to deliver covid-19 vaccines after the decision to withdraw the therapists from the northside school in early 2020, it is claimed.

School principal Sue Lenihan made the claim when speaking at a briefing to TDs, senators, and other decision-makers in Leinster House yesterday.

In the questions-and-answers session which followed the contributions from the speakers, a question was raised about what the therapists who had been providing support in St Killian’s prior to 2020 were now doing.

According to Ms Lenihan:

"We had an occupational therapist two days a week, we had a speech and language therapist two days a week — one was moved into the community and was trained to deliver covid vaccines — I find that absolutely shocking.”

Therapists were previously assigned to special schools until a new model of care was introduced in 2020, aimed at widening the availability of therapeutic support throughout the community.

However, Progressing Disability Service (PDS) has been widely criticised.

At the meeting in Leinster House, Ms Lenihan and Eibhlín Gleeson, chairperson of the St Killian’s Parents Unite group, joined other representatives of schools in Laois and Offaly to brief TDs and senators about the impact that a lack of therapists in schools has had on children.

Ms Lenihan outlined a three-stage plan which will be rolling out in St Killian’s following last week’s announcement that the school would receive €40,000 to pay for the provision of therapists sourced privately for one term.

“This model provides three days of multi-disciplinary intervention support in our school,” she said.

“This is a holistic, inclusive, child-centred model with the child’s voice at the centre. This should be made available to all special schools in the State until the State has a workable model.”

Ms Gleeson told the stories of a number of children attending St Killian’s and the impact the withdrawal of therapists had on them.

Other speakers told of children who were losing the ability to walk because they had lost access to physiotherapists, while testimony was also given about a pupil who had suicidal ideation, whose parents were housebound due to their fears of what might happen.

Ms Gleeson spoke also about the newly-formed Therapists In Special Schools National Alliance, which has schools from Cork, Laois, and Offaly on board already and is hoping to get others from different parts of the country to join also.

“Right now there is capacity in the private sector to deliver these services to special schools until the pilot is fit for purpose,” said Ms Gleeson, co-chair of the new body.

“We as an alliance will not stop until every special school in Ireland has the required therapists in place long term — until that time, funding must continue.

“This is a voting issue. All these 8,000 children have parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friends.”