{"id":478877,"date":"2026-06-02T08:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478877\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T08:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T08:48:10","slug":"psychiatrists-body-cannot-endorse-new-state-autism-protocol-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/478877\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychiatrists\u2019 body \u2018cannot endorse\u2019 new State autism protocol \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the largest professional mental health<\/a> bodies has said it \u201ccannot endorse\u201d the Health Service Executive<\/a>\u2019s new autism<\/a> protocol. <\/p>\n

The College of Psychiatrists of Ireland<\/a> has \u201cseveral significant concerns\u201d about the scheme, which the HSE hopes will tackle long waiting lists for assessments of need (AON) for autistic people. <\/p>\n

Trish Byrne, the college\u2019s chair of its faculty of child and adolescent psychiatry, said the planned new \u201ctiered approach\u201d to diagnosing autism, which will see assessments offered across HSE services and not just by disability<\/a> teams as is currently the case, is a \u201cmove away from standard, validated assessment\u201d process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have huge concerns and cannot endorse the protocol as it stands.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mothers\u2019 exposure to stress and chemicals at work linked to autism in offspring \u2013 studyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The protocol\u2019s language was \u201ccontradictory\u201d and \u201cvague\u201d, she said. There were risks of \u201cfalse negatives\u201d where autistic people were told they were not, and \u201cfalse positives\u201d where people were told they were autistic but in fact had other challenges. <\/p>\n

The protocol was an attempt to \u201cspread the load of an overwhelmed system into other systems that are already also overloaded\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe crux of the issue is that HSE disability services are not resourced adequately to meet the needs,\u201d said Byrne.<\/p>\n

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill<\/a>, Minister for Children Norma Foley<\/a>, Minister of State for disability Emer Higgins<\/a> and the HSE chief executive Anne O\u2019Connor announced details of the new \u2018autism assessment and intervention pathway protocol\u2019 last week. <\/p>\n

It \u201crepresents a significant step forward in how we support autistic people\u201d they said, and \u201cas a result, many families may not feel the need to apply for an AON\u201d. <\/p>\n

It will provide three \u2018tiers\u2019 of assessment depending on the complexity of the case, the HSE said. <\/p>\n

Implementation planning, beginning later this year, will include training for HSE staff, and the establishment of 20 \u201cexpert teams\u201d each to include a psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist and an administrator. <\/p>\n

An explanatory HSE note says: \u201cTier 1 autism assessment is the default assessment for relatively clear presentations of autism\u201d to be \u201ctypically completed in less than 10 hours\u201d including assessment, report and feedback time.<\/p>\n

The college\u2019s concerns centre on the tier 1, which they described as an \u201cabridged\u201d process that is inappropriate where the individual is new to services with no prior multidisciplinary input.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Autism charity under review told HSE it was \u2018transitioning away\u2019 from UK parentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Tier 2 will be an \u201cextended assessment … where the presentation of autism is less clear\u201d while tier 3 will involve \u201ccontinuing assessment … for the most complex and unclear presentations\u201d. <\/p>\n

The protocol is not a replacement for the AON, which remains a statutory right under the 2005 Disability Act, and the mechanism by which disabled children get a formal statement of their educational, social and occupational needs. <\/p>\n

Legislation states a child has a right to a completed AON within six months of a valid application. Current waiting times, however, are up to 27 months, forcing many parents who can afford it to get private assessments.<\/p>\n

Although psychiatry is not involved in assessing for autism, Byrne said: \u201cAs a college we have expertise in understanding autism. There is a high rate of associated mental health disorder, so it is a relevant area for the college to comment on.\u201d<\/p>\n

A HSE spokeswoman said the executive had had \u201cpositive engagement\u201d with the college in developing the protocol. <\/p>\n

\u201cRepresentatives of the college … were involved in developing the framework for competency components which will assist and guide clinicians as we move towards implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Implementation planning is due to start in the third quarter of this year, and will include training needs analysis and the identification of clinical and governance requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resourcing concerns raised … will be addressed by the recruitment of in-reach teams in the health regions,\u201d said the spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese teams will work to upskill autism assessment competency and confidence across all community teams to ensure inclusive practice, access and sustainability when supporting autistic people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the largest professional mental health bodies has said it \u201ccannot endorse\u201d the Health Service Executive\u2019s new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6128,206437,206438,42,1418,1421,410,43,2988,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-478877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-autism","tag-college-of-psychiatrists-of-ireland","tag-emer-higgins","tag-headlines","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-jennifer-carroll-macneill","tag-mental-health","tag-news","tag-norma-foley","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}