Limerick East): Developments in the provision of services in recent years for persons with disabilities have been, in the main, community based. The principle behind the development of the services has been to enable persons with disabilities to live as independent a life as possible within their own communities.
The Report of the Review Group on Mental Handicap Services —Needs and Abilities endorsed the establishment of community based services which enable persons with mental handicap to live as independent a life as possible. Most agencies would review, on an ongoing basis, the needs of the clients for whom they provide residential accommodation and where the opportunity arises, would try to enable individual clients to move to more community based accommodation.
In the case of people with mental handicap currently accommodated in psychiatric hospitals there has been an ongoing programme to transfer them to more appropriate care settings. A Nursing Adviser from my Department has been assisting the health boards to work out details of the transfers. He is also advising on ways in which accommodation and programmes for those residing in the psychiatric hospitals can be improved. Additional funding of £600,000 has been provided in 1995 to continue this programme.
In the case of services for people with physical disabilities, the policy also is to provide the necessary community supports to enable people to be as self-reliant and independent as possible and to facilitate their integration in all aspects of community life.