December 2008

PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY AT RISK OF NEGLECT AND ABUSE - INCLUSION IRELAND

“People with a disability are at risk of neglect and abuse”, Inclusion Ireland CEO Deirdre Carroll will today tell TDs and Senators in Leinster House. Ms. Carroll will be speaking on the need for standards and independent inspection in residential institutions for people with an intellectual disability. In a recent poll commissioned by Inclusion Ireland, 95%* of those polled said national standards should be in place for all residential centres and group houses where a service is provided to people with an intellectual disability.

Residential institutions for people with disabilities are not inspected and there are no national care standards applicable. In December 2007 a report was published into the abuse of adults and children with an intellectual disability in a service in Galway for 33 years. There are still no standards in place.

For example, children without a disability who are in care have their homes independently inspected against national standards under the Children’s Acts. Children with an intellectual disability have no such protection.

Deirdre Carroll says:

“Inclusion Ireland is aware of many excellent services providing good quality care to people with disabilities, but through our work we are also aware of cases of neglect, poor standards, bad practice and abuse.”

Deirdre Carroll, Inclusion Ireland Chairperson William Shorten and Vice-Chairperson Frieda Finlay, will this afternoon (3pm) go before the Oireachtas Health Committee to ask for that Committee’s support in ensuring standards are introduced into residential institutions for people with an intellectual disability.

The Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) will also present at the Committee meeting. HIQA have published draft standards, which have gone out for public consultation. These standards were due to be implemented in early 2009, but Inclusion Ireland now fears that this will be halted due to budgetary constraints, as implementation of standards for nursing homes have been delayed for cost reasons. The National Disability Authority spent two years, including an extensive public consultation process, devising standards from 2002 to 2004, but these standards were never implemented.

There are 25,613 people with an intellectual disability in Ireland (Annual Report National Intellectual Disability Database). 8,262 (32%) live in full time residential settings.

 [*The nationally representative poll of 1,000 adults aged 15+ was conducted by Behaviour & Attitudes Marketing Research via telephone in March 2008 and fully adhered to ESOMAR guidelines.]

ENDS

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