Dr. Sarah Donnelly:

As the Deputy correctly pointed out, we are now in a situation where many residents of nursing homes, whether they are older people or people with disabilities, are effectively isolated from their local communities. It is common practice that when someone enters a nursing home, effectively, all their engagement with other activities, social life and cultural events ceases. There are some excellent, fantastic nursing homes that support person-centred care with a human rights-based approach and try to provide a high quality of life with social stimulation, but there are also many facilities that are very institutionalised where people are disengaged from their families, local communities and identities and that is not the type of society we want. There are excellent examples from across Europe and the world where there are smaller nursing homes - household models - where, as we mentioned in our statement, there would be perhaps six people in a smaller community-based house. That is what we need to aspire to. We need to integrate our residents, whether they are younger people with disabilities or older people, more into local communities. This is an issue that not only affects current residents. It will affect each and every one of us because of our ageing population. That is something that is easily rectified.