Local resident Douglas Beaton, whose son is an adult with autism says there is a gap in the provision of services in South Tipp.
He says he has experienced first-hand the challenges for people like his son to achieve a full quality of life and hopes to come together with people of shared interest to address this.
Speaking to Tipp FM he said a meeting is taking place this coming Tuesday to start the process.
“What we’re doing is we’re putting out the call there to gather together people with a shared interest to get some ideas together for what the scope of the work should be and what the priorities are. The idea would be of that night would be that we would hope to get together a group of people who have responded to communications we’ve made – for example through existing networks of people with an interest in children with autism – and we would get together with them and pull some ideas together of what would the group be for.”
Douglas says this would be an inclusive group to anyone with an interest in the area and would raise awareness.
“Raise the knowledge of retail outlets, raise the knowledge of employers, raise up the knowledge in schools and colleges. But without ever saying that the services are doing a bad job – because the services are in the same community as the rest of us – trying to find our way forward in times of limited resources. So it certainly won’t be a finger-pointing exercise – it will be an exercise in trying to make the possible use of all of our energies to make the quality of life better for those with autism.”
The meeting will be held at the Clonmel Community Resource Centre on Tuesday 16th at 7pm.
