News & Events

HSE Report Recommends that each Area reconfigure respite & residential provision to include the Host Family Support Model.

The report of the Working Group into the feasibility of developing a national host family model of service delivery, Report of the Working Group on Respite/Residential Care with Host Families in Community Settings was published on 29 February 2012. The Working Group, comprised of representatives from NHSN, the DoH, HSE foster care and HSE disability services, including the National Disability Unit, has been active since October 2010.

The report, which received the backing of HSE senior management, reafirms many of the findings made in our own survey "A Host of Opportunities" and makes wideranging recommendations which are broadly in line with those made in our own survey report.

The Working Group has reconvened to oversee the development of national governance structures along the lines of our 2006 document "Recommendations for Good Practice and Procedures in the Recruitment of Host Carers for the National Home-sharing Projects Within Disability Services".

HSE Service Plan recognises need to develop "Host Family Support"

The HSE Service Plan 2012, which was approved by Minister for Health Dr. James Reilly, on 13 January has recognised the need to develop 'Host Family Support' in order to improve the choice available to people with disabilities" (p.54). 'Host Family Support' is the term recommended by the National Working Group (see below) to describe all host family services from short breaks to permanent residential arrangements.

Under the 'Key Result Area' of 'Service Provision and Total System Reconfiguration' the Plan cites the development of "new models of service provision, such as Host Family Support" as an "ongoing" deliverable output during 2012. In the introduction to the Plan, Mr Cathal Magee, Chief Executive Officer warns that "there is a fundamental challenge in terms of our ability to maximise services through fast tracking new, innovative and more efficient ways of using a reducing resource". However he goes on to state that the imperative for accelerated reform is equally clear and that some services will need to be prioritised over others to meet Government and other priorities (p.1).

Download the HSE Service Plan 2012

Executive Committee meeting

The Committee met on the 27th of March and welcomed Phidelma Kelly, St. Michael's House and Kieran Keon, Ability West who are replacing Therese McDonnell and Margaret Murray, respectively. Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 22 May 2012 at 10.30 am in Athlone.

NIDD recognises anomalies

Following a letter from NHSN to the Health Research Board pointing out that there seems to be a significant anomaly between the data that it collects on “occasional respite with host families” and figures produced by us, the National Intellectual Disability Database Committee is taking steps to address this and has been in contact with the National Working Group..

This is an important development, as planning is based on the need for future services as indicated by the NIDD.

NHSN would contend that there is an historic and unintentional bias towards centre-based 'respite, in the NIDD’s paperwork, including it’s data capture tools. This is supported by the findings of our survey "A Host of Opportunities" and by data published in the recently finalised report of the National Working Group. As a consequence of this historic bias, the NIDD reports are repeatedly stating that there needs to be more respite units/houses, when future supports (according to the best practice literature) are likely to be more diverse, supporting people in situ (i.e. in their own homes) and in their own community, through a choice of 'respite' options, including host family options among others.

If you have any useful comments about what you would like to see in the future, please forward them to info@nhsn.ie

Past Events

NHSN Conference 2011 - Waterford

Our 2011 Conference Research Evaluation and the Way Forward was held in the Tower Hotel in Waterford on 20 October. Feedback would suggest that it was our most successful conference to date. It was opened by Ciara Conway TD who spoke about the qualitative benefits and cost effectiveness of hosting in a society that needed to promote inclusion for everyone. Monica Coll, Siobhán Scully, and Mary Ryan from UCC presented on two research projects on hosting in Galway and Dublin. Sheelagh McInerney and Des Hanrahan spoke about the background to, and findings of, the National Working Group's mapping exercise. Home Share Clare screened their new DVD which is available to purchase.

After lunch delegates were treated to an explanation of the Science Shop model of commissioning research, before attending workshops on hosting guests with complex needs and the challenges of setting up a host-family service. Frank Keating of WIT sent the large crowd home in upbeat humour after his original and entertaining presentation on the therapeutic benefits of Life Space Intervention. A link to each of these presentations will be uploaded to this website shortly.

Party Spokespersons Campaign

As part of our campaign to encourage political parties to adopt enlightened policies on short breaks, the NHSN wrote, at the end of last year, to all the political party spokespersons on health & related matters and to all the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health - see press release for details. 25 TDs and Senators were contacted and 18 replied.. This response was encouraging with very few ‘Dear John’ replies. Many spokespersons and Joint Committee members asked to be kept informed of developments and others referred the issue to their respective Policy Development sections. Some offered to raise the matter at the Joint Committee.

Our PRO, Des Hanrahan, had a useful meeting with Senator Phil Prendergast, Labour Party Spokesperson on Health, Social and Family Affairs. Senator Prendergast is aware of the personal cost benefits and fiscal cost benefits of the host family model of providing short breaks and has pledged to support the NHSN campaign for a more enlightened ‘respite’ policy. Fine gael spokesperson on health Dr. James Reilly, also gave welcome encouragement as did Caoimhin O' Caolain of Sinn Fein. Fianna Fáil's John Moloney (Minister of State for Disability) delivered on setting up a National Working Group to progress our initiative and provided €2m to develop family based short break services as well as other complimentary community based supports in 2011 - see details above. We intend to take this campaign to the new Government with confidence.

7th ISBA Conference

NHSN was proud to host the 7th. ISBA Conference from 9 -11 June 2010 in NUI Galway. Some of the key presentations from this international biennial event are available to download at: http://www.isba.dk/plenary-presentation-.6

Upcoming Conferences

IASW Annual Conference

Date: 27 April 2012
Location: Dublin

Further information to follow

Contact: office@iasw.ie

IASSID World Congress 2012

Date: 9-14 July 2012
Venue: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Contact: www.iassid.org

8th International Short Break Association 2012 Respite Conference

RESPITE IS KEY

DATE: 10-12 October 2012
Venue: Toronto, Ontario Canada

For up to date information and details visit the website or contact Caroline Ferry

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