Committee calls for ‘crisis talks’
The Government has been called on to hold crisis talks on national measures to support a transformation of disability services.
The call came from the Joint Committee on Disability Matters as it recently published its report on Aligning Disability Services with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
The UNCRPD specifically requires the consultation and active involvement of people with disabilities and their representative organisations in decision-making processes concerning issues relating to them.
The committee has said it found access to mainstream health services “severely impacted” for people with disabilities in Ireland due to inaccessible services, a lack of expertise, therapies, and individualised services as well as a significant cost of disability and a lack of disability awareness training across all areas of the service.
The committee said: “Disability services, which deal with more complex disabilities, has a broken organisational structure that impacts transformation of a service, and is based on a medical approach to disability, sustains segregation through a lack of mainstreaming early intervention, and ultimately impacts the rights of people with disabilities under the UNCRPD.”
Speaking at the launch of the report, Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Michael Moynihan said: “Urgent action is needed from Government on Disability Services to ensure the rights of children and adults with disabilities are upheld in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).”
The Cork TD added: “Government crisis talks must be undertaken to ensure action from all relevant actors. The committee heard about the crisis in children’s disability services from parents of children with disabilities, including parents who were forced to form advocacy groups because they were not receiving early intervention. Parents experienced significant distress watching their children regress as a result of a lack of early intervention.”
He continued: “Parents were forced to impact their privacy and dignity by engaging with the media to tell their personal stories to raise awareness and access services. There is also a significant range of court-cases taken against the HSE where parents are advocating for the rights of their children to access services. A crisis of culture, recruitment and retention exist in disability services.”
Deputy Moynihan said: “There is significant capacity for transformation in line with the dignity, will and preference and rights-based provision of care as outlined by the UNCRPD. The committee also heard about the crisis in adult services. Adults residing in disability residential centres have a lower quality of life where their rights and will and preference are not respected.
“Access to advocacy and rights-based person-centred planning must be developed to support people, as well as programmes to deliver independent living. Better access to community and rehabilitative supports is needed, as well as mainstreaming disability under Sláintecare,” he concluded.
The report makes several recommendations under the headings of rights-based disability services provision, community-based health services and support, children’s disability services and future innovation.