Waiting list for disability advocacy service more than doubles

Mon, 31 Jul, 2023 - 16:58

Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent

The advocacy waiting list for people with disabilities seeking help with housing, healthcare and other issues reached 250 last year, an increase of 55% from the year before.

The National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities (NAS) annual report shows these waiting lists continue to grow, reaching 263 by June of this year, compared to 161 in January last year. NAS board chairperson Rosemary Smyth linked this increase to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

“The shift back to 'normal' life was slower for a lot of the people who access our services and the residual impact will require significant management for some time to come,” she warned.

The most common issues were access to housing, problems they faced in residential or healthcare settings and problems associated with people’s ability to make decisions for themselves.

NAS helped with 3,576 pieces of work, with significantly more people having multiple issues than during the year before. The report shows while this level of casework is “an almost 50% increase” since 2015, funding for staffing has not increased since 2011.

National manager Joanne Condon said the growth in demand is “reassuring”. The Assisted Decision Making (Capacity Act) was recently commenced, and she said this highlighted the “shift to human rights-based approach in health and social care practice” now.

“We have seen a substantial increase in our waiting lists and this demonstrates a clear need for increased funding for advocacy services for people with disabilities,” she said.

“Many of the people on NAS waiting lists are experiencing active human rights violations and need the support of an advocate to ensure they have an active role in determining what happens in their lives. They must be able to access advocacy support at the time they need it most.”

NAS is a registered charity, funded by the Citizens Information Board to work with adults living with disabilities.

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The Patient Advocacy Service also published its annual report, finding a 54% increase in contacts compared to 2021. They provided support in 1,859 enquiries coming to 6,101 separate complaint issues.

This service deals with queries from people living in private nursing homes, as well as public nursing homes and hospitals. Some 1,346 people complained about public hospitals, and 62 about nursing homes.

Communication was among the five most commonly raised issues for hospitals including visiting restrictions, anxieties not being addressed and care plans not being communicated.

“The Patient Advocacy Service continued to receive enquiries related to the ongoing impact of the covid-19 pandemic, as restrictions and disruptions disproportionately affected the delivery of healthcare services throughout the country,” they said.

This free, confidential service is hosted by NAS and funded by the Department of Health with offices in Cork, Galway and Dublin. National manager Georgina Cruise said: “The extension of our remit to private nursing homes demonstrates our continuing growth.”