Over 1,700 disabled adults living at home with their ageing parents or other carers need residential care now or will require it within the next five years, according to a new report.
The Health Research Board (HRB) report on disability services shows 73,927 people were registered as involved with disability services last year, 28,859 of whom are adults.
It said almost all children were registered as engaging with a multidisciplinary children’s disability network team (CDNT). More than six in 10 adults were in receipt of a day service, and one in four adults were living in residential care.
Overnight respite is required for over 1,300 children and adults, a service many families say is inadequate.
More than 7,000 people access residential care while over 18,000 adults are accessing a day service and over 3,000 people are in receipt of overnight respite. A total of 43,000 children have been assessed as requiring the support of a multidisciplinary team.
Autism was the most common disability recorded for four in 10, followed by intellectual disability and physical disability – fewer than one in 10.
Among adults, over half have an intellectual disability, followed by neurological disability and physical disability.
More than 13,000 reported having a primary carer and nine in 10 live with them, mostly their parents.
The National Ability Supports System (NASS) is a national database which records information about the HSE disability-funded services that people use and need such as, residential services, respite care, day services and specialist supports. Data is provided to NASS by service providers who provide disability services to people in Ireland. Service providers are asked to ‘review’ NASS records for each of their service users once a year to ensure information is accurate for each reporting year.
Full report can be found here.