It is important that residential centres for people with disabilities appropriately manage respite services so that they don’t negatively impact on residents who live in a centre most of the time.
HIQA is very mindful of the challenges for respite services in meeting the needs of people with disabilities and the difficulties families have in accessing respite care.
There are a range of different models of respite services for people with disabilities, but one that has posed particular difficulties is where respite is offered to people whenever the usual full-time residents in a house are not there.
Achieving an appropriate balance between the rights, dignity and privacy of residents usually living in the house and meeting the respite needs of other people with disabilities is very difficult.
Inspectors have met full-time residents who clearly state that they do not wish others to use their bedrooms whenever they are not there. Other full-time residents have described situations in which their personal items have been damaged during respite visits, family photographs have been torn up and other visiting residents have used their personal property.
Finbarr Colfer, our Deputy Chief Inspector of Social Services, says for that HIQA, the issue is how services ensure that the dignity and privacy of the residents who normally live there is maintained. He added that while this model of respite developed to meet a historical need, residents should always be asked their views about sharing their rooms and personal space whenever they are away.
Whenever residents do give consent, providers should put in place arrangements to protect the privacy and the property of those residents, and ensure that there are good hygiene control arrangements in place.
Finbarr commented: “If these issues are not being managed correctly, we require providers either to put measures in place to manage them correctly or to consider whether it is an appropriate way of using the person’s room…. In many cases, the actions taken by providers are effective but sometimes providers choose to cease the arrangement because they are not satisfied themselves that they can address the issues that are arising from that respite service.”