Dr. Susan Finnerty:

At a local level, there has been needs-based assessments but I am not aware of any overall nationwide assessment of what is needed to provide a rehabilitation service. It tends to be a knee-jerk reaction. There will be people in acute services who need rehabilitation, which is provided in the private sector a long way from their homes. That is not ideal. There have been some moves by the HSE to provide other agency services and staff such as housing officers or individual placement and support, IPS, which is the placement service for people looking for jobs, and that has started to be rolled out. There is some recognition that maybe the nursing or medical model does not always work and we have to look outside the box.