Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 25 May 1995

Vol. 453 No. 5

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mental Handicap Services.

Tom Moffatt

Question:

4 Dr. Moffatt asked the Minister for Health the plans, if any, he has to deal with the problem of placement of the mentally handicapped in day-care and residential care throughout the country. [9560/95]

As part of this Government's ongoing commitment to the further development of services to people with mental handicap, a total of £12 million in additional funding has been made available in 1995. Of this £2 million was used to meet identified needs in existing services.

The sum of £8 million revenue and £2 million capital is being allocated for the development of new services.

An amount of £7.1 million revenue has been allocated to the health board regions for the development of a broad range of services including: 189 additional residential and respite places; 418 additional day care places; further extension of the home support services; improvement of services for persons with mental handicap who are behaviourally disturbed; provision of hepatitis B vaccinations for staff working in the mental handicap services and client groups who are considered to be at risk.

The remaining £900,000 will be made available for the development of services for persons with autism and for the transfer of persons with a mental handicap from psychiatric hospitals and other inappropriate placements. This funding will be allocated for allowing further discussions between my Department and the health boards.

The capital expenditure of £2 million will be directly related to the agreed service developments.

In addition £4.2 million is being provided in 1995, as part of the EU Structural Fund Programme 1994-99, for the development of training centres which will benefit people with disabilities including those with a mental handicap.

The precise services to be put in place in each region will be agreed with the regional mental handicap co-ordinating committees within the guidelines issued by my Department and subject to my approval.

I assure the Deputy that the provision of additional services for persons with a mental handicap has a very high priority within my Department. Between 1990 and 1994 a cumulative figure of £26.5 million revenue and £6.08 million capital in additional funding has been invested in services for people with mental handicap. In the same period overall expenditure on services to persons with mental handicap increased from £161 million to £238 million.

The Government has outlined its commitment to the continued development of these services in both the policy document, A Government of Renewal, and the Health Strategy.

It is my intention to ensure that this commitment continues to be honoured.

I thank the Minister for his reply. Will the Minister agree that it is unacceptable that we should have a waiting list for mental illness patients, especially the handicapped? The president of the association has said it is unacceptable. Yet, in Áras Attracta, County Mayo, there are 40 vacant beds. I appreciate that much is being done and that substantial amounts of money are being allocated but this is an area that has not been looked at sufficiently. It is an area that cries out for more moneys, more respite care and more facilities for both in-patient and home care services. In western care——

That should be adequate for the time being.

The issue of waiting lists is receiving priority in the Department. When I came to office I discovered there had been no census of the mental handicap population since the general census of 1981. A database is being developed within the Department and information has come back from the various health boards. That information is being thoroughly analysed. This is an important initial step in the context of an ongoing commitment of further resources to the sector. It is important to know exactly the number of people for whom we need to cater.

I take the Deputy's point. None of us likes to see waiting lists. Under successive Governments, substantial moneys have been allocated to this area and a great deal of improvement has been wrought. Home support which was introduced by a former Minister for Health, Deputy Rory O'Hanlon, in 1992, is developing and is welcomed by parents and relatives, the carers generally of mentally handicapped persons. In the past we have tended to focus on the mentally handicapped who could not come through the Rehab programme grades 1, 2 and 3 by placing them in sheltered workshops and the problem was regarded as solved. This was greatly to underestimate the potential of those people whom Members on all sides seek to help in every way possible.

The model for the future may well be a mixture of respite care, home support and resource centres rather than the old concept of the sheltered workshop. We need to find more places in the private sector where some of these people can go for a day or two in the week and become more involved in the community and with other people. In a resource centre, in the context of what many people regard as the sheltered workshop, people would be exposed to a wide range of activities. On the basis that every person has some special talent, the special talent of the individual can be identified and a programme developed around it. I would like to see emphasis on the individual.

We all wish to see the waiting lists eliminated. The method by which they are to be eliminated is a question we should all address because no person has a monopoly of wisdom on that issue.

I am pleased to learn the database is in place. Will the Minister indicate the exact numbers on the waiting lists?

I have figures which are subject to analysis and rechecking. The data received indicate that about 1,453 persons are waitlisted for residential services and 1,526 persons for day care services throughout the country. Obviously we have to check for duplication and to quantify the level of care required and differentiate between current and future needs. For instance, a person on a waiting list may not require service for five or six years. We want to do this job well and as accurately as possible. The figures I have given are relatively accurate but subject to rechecking.

How many of those people are inappropriately in psychiatric hospitals?

I do not have that specific information available to me in the House today. If it is to hand I will ensure it is passed on to the Deputy as quickly as possible.

Will the Minister say whether the numbers on the waiting lists have decreased since the last analysis was carried out two or three years ago?

In the context of resources being provided, I take it the numbers are decreasing but that question would be better answered in the context of the database. For instance, this year £600,000 is being provided to cater for people coming out of psychiatric hospital or other inappropriate settings and going into more appropriate care settings. Resources have been applied to this area. There have been improvements and many people have been moved over a period of time.

Top
Share