Call for standards in services for disabled

IT is “disgraceful, immoral and outrageous” that there are no inspections of any residential services for people with an intellectual disability, the chairperson of Inclusion Ireland has said.

Speaking at the 50th annual conference of Inclusion Ireland, Frieda Finlay said although standards existed, she had been told by a civil servant that they will never be implemented on a statutory basis because there are “too many people living in sub-human conditions” and it would cost too much.

Ms Finlay, wife of Fergus Finlay, said even organisations that are very modern in their funding and brochures can have institutionalised habits and practices.

She said they can have policies that effectively treat people like “square pegs in round holes”.

“There are those who work all God’s hours to make sure that they will not have to close any of their facilities because of a shortfall in funding. Whose staff see our sons and daughters as their equals. But there are others that do not. That is why the standards are so necessary. The first standard is about quality of life. That is not a cost — it is a change of mindset,” she said.

Inclusion Ireland is also seeking a “serious and fundamental review” of the Disability Act and the EPSEN Act.

“Neither of these Acts has ever worked properly, or fully in the interests of people with a disability. It could be argued that the passage of that legislation was a massive con trick, and the time has long passed for both pieces of legislation to be replaced by genuine rights which can be progressively realised,” Ms Finlay said.

In her speech to the conference last night, Ms Finlay also pointed out that every year a hundred people with an intellectual disability are being made wards of court because of the lack of capacity legislation.

She said it was “unbelievable” that certain rights of people with an intellectual disability are still governed by the Lunacy Act of 1871.

Being a ward of court means, for example, if a family member or friend wants to take the person abroad for a holiday, permission has to be sought from the High Court.

And it is the reason why people over the age of eighteen with an intellectual disability still can’t make important decisions for themselves — even though, once they pass the age of eighteen, their parents can’t make decisions for them either.

Addressing the conference, Junior Minister with responsibility for the sector Kathleen Lynch said preparation for the Mental Capacity Bill was at an advanced stage and it will be published this year.

The Bill will provide a set of key underlying principles to guide all interventions made on behalf of people lacking capacity.

Under the new capacity legislation, a administrative structure, the Office of Public Guardian, will be established to ensure a more effective and appropriate system for persons who lack capacity and their families is in place, the Minister said.