Vol. 469 No. 2
21 Mr. Killeen asked the Minister for Health the plans, if any, he has to provide residential and respite care places for people with a mental handicap; the number of such places currently in use; and the number required. [16663/96]
Limerick East): As the Deputy is aware, substantial additional funding has been made available in recent years for the development of services to persons with a mental handicap. Additional funding of £56.58 million was invested in the services in the period 1990-1996 which has enabled health boards to put in place over 1,000 additional residential places and 2,300 day care places.
Respite services are provided in a variety of ways; for example through the use of dedicated respite beds, residential places vacated by residents returning to their families at weekends and the use of other residential places as and when available. Responsibility for the respite care scheme was transferred from the Department of Social Welfare to my Department at the start of 1995. Funding of £500,000 was made available in each of the years 1995 and 1996 to provide grants to agencies and organisations to provide respite care. This scheme is administered through the health boards.
The national mental handicap database collects figures on the number of people in receipt of a service rather than the number of beds available. Provisional data indicate that the number of people in respite and residential placements in July was as follows:
|
Service |
Number currently in Service |
|
Residential Support Services Only (includes respite) |
224 |
|
Residential Support Services and Day Service |
1,582 |
|
5/7 Day Residential and Day Services |
6,995 |
|
5/7 Day Residential only |
686 |
