Disability service guidelines ‘to make real difference’

New HSE guidelines on providing accessible services to patients with disabilities that took more than two years to prepare were launched in Dublin’s Mater Hospital yesterday.

Director of the National Disability Authority, Siobhán Barron, said the guidelines provided clear directions to staff on what actions could make a tangible difference to a person.

“These guidelines provide a lot of practical advice that, when implemented, will make accessing health and social care services a positive experience for everyone,” said Ms Barron.

“Having the right attitude and understanding the needs of someone with a disability goes a long way in improving access to services,” she said.

The guidelines were developed by the HSE together with the authority and with input from an advisory group established in 2011.

HSE national director for quality and improvement, Dr Philip Crowley, said there was a commitment in the guidelines to training people to attend to the access needs of people with disabilities.

Dr Crowley said they had 70 access officers and hoped to train 140 more.

Disability advocate and campaigner for disability equality, Martin Naughton, said full and equal access was far more than just being able to navigate the physical environment.

People with disabilities should be able to get user-friendly information, communicate their needs and have any processes or treatments explained in a positive and stress-reducing way.

“It is crucial that everyone in the health services plays their part in ensuring that this happens and these guidelines, when implemented fully, represent an important step forward in creating an open and inclusive health service for all.” he said.

HSE director general, Tony O’Brien, said work was ongoing in making services accessible and appointing access officers throughout the country.

Mr O’Brien said accessibility was more than having wheelchairs and automated doors.

“It does, of course, include access to buildings but it also includes how consent is obtained; how medication is explained; how appointments are managed and assigned and how bad news is broken.”

“It is critical that all of us who work in health and social care services accept that disability is something that can affect us all and that we build this reality into our everyday practice.”

Mr O’Brien said he had the full backing of the Minister with responsibility for Primary and Social Care, Kathleen Lynch, in calling for the full implementation of the guidelines across the health and social care system.

Ms Lynch said the guidelines were a “charter for decency”. “I have spent a considerable amount of my time in hospital and it is never an experience that I look forward to,” she said.

“Whether it is through accident and emergency or through a planned admission, how you are treated when you walk through the door is hugely important,” she added.

Ms Lynch said the guidelines would ensure that everyone as they grew older would be treated with dignity and respect.