The most up-to-date information available to my Department concerning services for persons with an intellectual disability is contained in the national intellectual disability database committee's annual report for 2004 which was published on 26 November 2004.
This report states that in 2004, 23,843 people with intellectual disability are receiving services. This accounts for 93.8% of the total population registered on the database and is up from 91.8% in 2003. A summary of the overall level of service provision in 2004 is as follows:
Attending services on a day basis
|
15,709
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Receiving five or seven day residential services
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7,619
|
Resident in a psychiatric hospital
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474
|
Receiving residential support services only
|
41
|
Total
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23,843
|
Furthermore, 4,415 day attenders and 483 full-time residents receive residential support services in addition to their principal service. Some 7,936 full-time residents receive a day service in addition to their full-time residential service.
The 2004 report indicates that 1,893 new residential and 347 new day places are required over the period 2005 to 2009 to meet the needs of those who are without any service and those who are without a major element of service such as day or residential service. Some 1,763 people also require access to residential support services — respite — over the same period. Details of the numbers of people who require a service change over the same period are also outlined in the report.
The data from the national intellectual disability database for 2004 identify 474 individuals with intellectual disability — all aged 20 or over — accommodated in psychiatric hospitals. Of this group, 315 individuals have service requirements in the period 2005-09, of whom 286 have an appropriate alternative residential facility identified for them and two require residential support services to assist them to live semi-independently in the community; 24 have identified day service requirements, two of whom also require a residential support service and one of whom also requires increased support within a psychiatric hospital; three require increased support within a psychiatric hospital; and 27 of the 315 individuals who require services will continue to reside within the psychiatric hospital. My Department has arranged for a copy of this report to be sent to the Deputy.