asked the Minister for Health the number of children and adults who are registered as being autistic.
7.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Autistic Children and Adults.
6.
asked the Minister for Health what facilities are available for the diagnosis and treatment of autistic children.
8.
asked the Minister for Health the number of children on the waiting list for entry to institutions catering exclusively for autistic children.
9.
asked the Minister for Health if entry to the autistic unit of St. Loman's Hospital, Ballyowen, Dublin, is restricted to autistic children from Dublin city and county.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 6 to 9 together.
There is no generally accepted definition of autism. The term is used to describe a particular illness but is also used to cover a number of different mental illnesses.
There is no register of autistic children or adults and at present statistics of the total number of persons in this country in need of psychiatric care, who might be described as autistic, are not available.
Two residential units have been specifically provided for the treatment of mentally ill children, including autistic children. One is at St. Loman's Hospital, Ballyowen, County Dublin, the work of which is complemented by a day-centre at St. Kevin's Hospital. The other is St. Paul's Hospital, Beaumont, Dublin. Forty children, including ten pre-adolescents are being cared for in the unit at St. Loman's Hospital, of whom nineteen are from Dublin city and county and twenty-one from areas outside Dublin. Admission to this unit has for some time past been restricted to children from the Dublin area. Accommodation for twenty-four children has been provided at St. Paul's Hospital which has recently opened. Eight children have so far been admitted, all of whom are from areas outside Dublin. There are twenty-four children attending the day-centre at St. Kevin's Hospital, and six attending at St. Loman's on a day-basis. It is anticipated that twenty children will later attend for day-care at St. Paul's Hospital.
Seven children are on the waiting list for admission either to the residential unit at St. Loman's or the day-centre at St. Kevin's Twenty-seven applications have been received for admission to St. Paul's, some of which have not yet been assessed.
Will the Minister not agree that the diagnosis of autism is a rather specialised field of medicine, that people suffering from this disease require special treatment and should not be put together with what we call mentally retarded children? Would the Minister not also agree that all facilities are centred in Dublin away from the provinces where most of the people live. The whole approach of the Minister's Department to this question has been very poor.
It has been the policy of the Department to secure residential accommodation and it is necessary to find people willing to accept teaching in those institutions. It is not always possible to locate residential institutions in places where the children may be near their parents. This difficulty is also experienced in other countries. The Deputy may think he is an expert on autistic children; I do not pretend to be one, but I have read accounts of this and there is, in fact, disagreement about what constitutes an autistic child.
I am not an expert on autism but I know that autistic children need specialised care, different to that required for mentally retarded children. Will the Minister say why admission to St. Loman's Hospital is reserved for people from Dublin? Are the people from the country to be treated as second-class citizens?
I have already indicated to the Deputy that steps have been taken to provide residential care for children from the country and we have recently had the opening of an extension to St. Paul's Hospital, Beaumont. If the Deputy reads the reply in detail he will find that progress is being made.
In the 21st century.