Dr. Karen Foley:

Our services engage with nursing homes where there are teams in place for case management. Given that level of experience and how effective it can be, with good outcomes that can be achieved, we put a proposal to the Government to put in sufficient assessment resource and capacity throughout the country to offer an assessment to every individual under 65 in a nursing home, regardless of his or her diagnosis, so not just people with a brain injury. The purpose of that is to allow equal access to that assessment to identify the support needs that would need to be met to bring that individual who wants to move closer to the community and to start that journey. Our experience on the ground is of a lottery approach. It is a lottery approach in each CHO area and how progressive it is being in trying to meet the yearly targets it has been given to move people on from nursing homes. Some organisations are more proactive and have actively sought assessments of the individuals in their nursing homes to identify them. Other areas, however, are not as proactive. Given our experience in this area, we could offer an equitable approach throughout the country to allow every individual under 65 access to an assessment and a recommendation for what they would need to live a life that is more of their choosing.