asked the Minister for Health the number of mentally handicapped persons who are on waiting lists for residential care in the administrative area of the Southern Health Board.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Southern Health Board Area Mentally Handicapped.
3.
There are 64 mentally handicapped people, 16 adults and 48 children, on waiting lists for residential care in the Southern Health Board area.
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asked the Minister for Health the number of community care nurses employed by the Southern Health Board who are available to give advice in the homes of persons where mentally handicapped adults or children are resident; if he considers that the number available is adequate or satisfactory; and, if not, the number of nurses required for this purpose.
The duties of public health nurses in the Southern Health Board include advising and counselling parents of mentally handicapped children. There are at present 135 public health nurses working in the board's area. Counselling is also arranged by voluntary agencies providing services for people with mental handicap.
I indicated in the recently published Green Paper on Services for Disabled People that my Department will undertake a review of the arrangements for the counselling and support of the parents of mentally handicapped children.
Is it a fact that the resources available to the community care sector at present are totally inadequate? If there is any hope — as we would all like to see — of transferring the emphasis from the hospital sector to the community, a massive injection of capital is required and will the Minister indicate if he has any intention of doing this?
I should like to see, particularly on a pilot basis, the development of a counselling service for parents of mentally handicapped children. It could be done on a joint basis between the local voluntary agencies and the health boards. If there was a pilot scheme in each health board area we could learn how to go about it more effectively. However, there are no pilot schemes at present and we are depending on the voluntary agencies and on the 135 public health nurses in the board's area.