The “sheer volume of complaints” of mistreatment, abuse or lapses in care for people with disabilities in residential settings shows the need for proper inspection, Fine Gael said today.
Party spokesman on disability David Stanton said he is “shocked and disturbed” by the scale of abuse emerging in institutions for people with disabilities.
Records seen by The Irish Times reveal today more than 500 complaints have been made over the past two-and-a-half years, including allegations of abuse or physical assault by staff at a number of residential centres.
At present, there are no mandatory care standards or independent inspections of disability services, unlike nursing homes for older people and residential centres for children in State care.
Mr Stanton said it is essential “all people with disabilities in residential care benefit from the same standards as everyone else in residential care”.
He called for the establishment of a community-based advocacy scheme whereby trained volunteers visit people with disabilities in residential care.
Labour’s spokesperson on equality Kathleen Lynch described the reports of abuse as “harrowing”.
Ms Lynch said: “What is perhaps the most disturbing element of this is that the complaints were made, not years or decades ago, but since 2007, so we are not talking about a situation where the principals have long since retired or even passed away.”
“One gets a sense of déjà vu on hearing that the response to complaints against staff, even in some of the most serious cases, was simply to move them to another part of the organisation,” she added.
She said it is a matter of “extreme urgency” that responsibility for standards in the facilities must be placed on a statutory basis under the auspices of the Health Information and Quality Agency.
The chief executive of Inclusion Ireland Deirdre Carroll said the level of complaints did not come as a surprise and said there are probably more that were never reported to the HSE.
“The only way to deal with this is to have robust inspection, regulation and unannounced inspections," she said. “You need somebody who goes in there whose sole purpose is to support the rights of people with disabilities and to see that they are receiving an appropriate quality of care.”
Ms Carroll called for the Government to commit to funding inspections. “It's not a huge amount of funding when you compare to some of the money that has been spent on bonuses for higher civil servants etc.”
“The bottom line is that the Irish taxpayer is paying millions for disability services that are not inspected," she said.
Responding, the Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI) expressed alarm at the revelations.
"The coverage in today's Irish Times reporting on the first two and half years of HSE's recording of complaints in relation to disability services makes for very disturbing reading," said chief executive John Dolan
"In Ireland we now know enough about the importance of having robust systems to deliver and monitor the quality of person centred services to people who can be vulnerable. Timely and effective systems for governance, management and performance review as well as complaints and redress systems are essential elements of that," he said.
Mr Dolan said his organisation was "very willing" to work with the HSE to ensure lessons were learned and to support "changes and developments that are required".
The lack of mandatory standards is no excuse for the poor quality care and abuse highlighted Barbara O'Connell chief executive of Acquired Brain Injury Ireland (ABI Ireland) said.
Ms O’Connell said the report is “very disturbing for all those providing care to disabled people in Ireland, whether in residential or community settings”.
She said while it “behoves” the Government to introduce mandatory care standards, voluntary organizations in the sector should obtain independent accreditation from recognised agencies.
Meanwhile, in a statement released this evening the HSE said it would welcome independent inspection of its residential facilities for people with intellectual disabilities, both those directly operated by and facilities funded by the executive.
It said: “Given the breadth of services provided to people with disabilities by the HSE and voluntary organisations, there can be a range of complaints differing in nature being dealt with at any point in time.
“Many complaints recorded are not serious in nature and are dealt with at a local level.”
“However, a small number of serious complaints in the last two years resulted in action up to and including staff being removed from duties, changes to staffing levels at facilities and disciplinary action being taken where required.”
The executive encouraged anyone not satisfied with the response they received to a complaint to contact the executive’s consumer affairs department.
Over 8,000 adults and 200 children with intellectual disabilities are in full-time residential accommodation in settings ranging from large institutions to group homes.
