An Cathaoirleach: The purpose of this meeting is to have an engagement on the topic of the functions of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, as they relate to its relationship with the Courts Service and An Garda Síochána. On behalf of the committee, I welcome the following people from Tusla to the committee: Ms Kate Duggan, chief executive officer; Mr. Gerard Brophy, chief social worker; Ms Pamela Benson, head of legal services, and Ms Lorna Kavanagh, interim service director at services and integration.....

...Senator Sharon Keogan: Last week, I attended a briefing in the audiovisual room by FASD Ireland. I was aware of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder in children because I had foster children from Tusla who had that diagnosis. There are no formal statutory diagnosis guidelines in the Department of Health. Will the witnesses do whatever they need to do to join the dots between their organisation and the Department of Health to get that formally diagnosed? People have to get an independent diagnosis in the UK, Spain or wherever. The witnesses will have come across it through their social workers. Can they give me some hope that they will do that?
Mr. Gerard Brophy
 
I attended the FASD conference in Ennis this year. I and Aaron Swift, a psychologist who works with FASD in Oberstown, went down to talk. We have had a good bit of communication with the HSE about this. It has a public health campaign going out through pharmacies at the moment about alcohol, the association with pregnancy and the incidence of FASD. The clear message is no alcohol, either for men or women, is safe preceding pregnancy. It is associated with incidences of FASD. It is a public health piece we need to get out there. There is one consultant in Mullingar, Professor Sharif, who has been trained in a Washington model of diagnosis.

Senator Sharon Keogan: She was there.

Mr. Gerard Brophy: She was there, exactly. She is doing this on a private basis. There is a requirement to set up a pathway. That is complex. It is another disease pathway that needs to be there for diagnosis. We do a lot with our own therapeutic teams, be they the regional teams or ACTS teams, in terms of special care, speech and language, OT and other assessments. It requires a multidisciplinary assessment.
Senator Sharon Keogan
 
I am talking about children with behavioural issues, aggression and things like that. I am particularly talking about children in care. It is about joining the dots between Tusla and the Department of Health to make this official and statutory.

Mr. Gerard Brophy: We advocate for this because we are conscious of this for children in care, particularly. I have experience of dealing with this over the past 25 years. I have been looking to get this developed, like the Senator. I appreciate her experience in this. The HSE is taking this in line with its disability approach. It is looking at a continuum of disability and this is on that continuum. Rather than focusing on diagnosis, it is about supporting these children and giving them the advice to live well where they are. We are supporting that as we go along and we want a clinical diagnosis pathway as well...

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