The provision of key professionals in specialist areas such as speech and language and occupational therapy is vital as part of all early intervention programmes for persons with ASD .
Most countries have acute shortages of these professionals and this has resulted in significant waiting lists for these vital services with people having to wait over 4/5 years for any such service .
Barnardos in Ireland have worked proactively in highlighting the huge delays in Ireland in this area Barnardos works at first hand with over 15,000 children and their families each year .
Barnardos report that in March 2018 there were a total of 10,966 children waiting for Speech and Language Therapy assessments which was a 5.5% increase on September 2017 .
Children with autism are further behind waiting for complicated assessments and at a time of major change in their skills and capacities delays in this treatment impacts every aspect of the child’s life resulting in a daily struggle to not only keep pace with other children but attempting to catch up to their peers.
The Irish speech and language services cannot cope with the demand. Ireland has half the number of Therapists it needs resulting in delays and many children with ASD battling for a simple assessment and then waiting years for these services .
In the UK the position is no better with a national shortage of therapists putting considerable pressure on services with over 2.5 million people in the UK needing therapy .
The UK’s shortage is further compounded by Brexit with guaranteed residency status for EU nationals living in the UK looking like it will be no more as Britain heads for a hard Brexit .
As the rich and the powerful gather each year at Davos is must be time for this issue to be raised at this forum and for some fresh thinking to take place around the provision of these services across the globe .