Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising the very important issue of respite care services and giving me the opportunity to outline the position on their provision.

A Programme for a Partnership Government recognises the need for respite care services to be developed further. The Government is committed to the safeguarding of vulnerable persons in the care of the health service by providing services and supports for people with disabilities that will empower them to live independent lives in accessing the services they choose and enhance their ability to tailor the supports required to meet their needs and plan their lives.

The provision of respite care services has come under additional pressure in the past few years. I accept the point the Senator made in that regard. Any available development funding has focused mostly on the provision of day places for pupils graduating from school or rehabilitative training programmes. We have prioritised this area because there were huge gaps in it, particularly when I took over my responsibilities as Minister of State. This has led to increased demand for respite care services for these young adults who would previously have accessed them as children. We accept that there is a problem and that we must do something about it.

More children and adults are seeking access to respite care services. The "changing needs" of people with a disability are also having an impact as they, with the rest of the population, live longer. Respite care is not always centre-based and can be provided in a number of ways, for example, as a holiday residential placement, an occasional respite care placement with a host family, overnight respite care in the home and in summer camps which allow people to continue living with their families and in their local communities.To support these alternative ways of providing respite, funding has been provided to the HSE to provide 185 new emergency residential placements. New home supports and in-home respite care for 210 additional people who require emergency supports has been allocated. This marks a significant change in the way respite services are delivered. The HSE social care operation plan for 2017 aims to provide 182,000 overnight stays in centre-based respite services, in addition to the 41,000 day respite sessions. The HSE acknowledges the difficulty experienced by families in respect of the lack of respite places available and is working with agencies to provide and explore various ways of responding to this need in line with the budget available.

In this regard, an ehealth resource for providers, such as online case management systems that facilitate the effective management and tracking of all residential home support and emergency respite services across the nine community health organisations, is being developed. This will provide a detailed inventory, bed register and map of current service capacity. Each of the CHOs will have in place residential care and executive management committees that will have the overarching responsibility of managing and co-ordinating residential places supports within their respective CHOs

I thank Senator Burke for raising this very important issue. I want to assure him and the House that I will continue to liaise with the HSE regarding the availability of respite care facilities.