Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 20 October 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters
Supporting People with Disabilities to Live in Communities: Discussion
Ms Colette Cahill:
There is a waiting list. In the last 12 months we have grown 75% in terms of people. As we are becoming known and as our services are growing, the demand is certainly increasing. We are currently serving 305 families but if you average that out at about four per family and if we are serving the whole family, which we do, you could be talking more than 1,000 people that we are potentially servicing. They are accessing our psychological support services, our continence service, our occupational therapy, OT, services and our independent living services, as well as our community services.
We were fortunate this year in that we opened our first inclusive, fully-accessible playground where all the family can come together and play. That is really important because many parties or similar events cannot happen because the kids cannot go as they are not accessible. We have kids parties where the whole class can come and play as a unit along with the family. It is the ripple effect. That is our model.
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