National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability 2011 - 2016

10.16 The NIDD noted that of the people registered on this database, “more than 1 in 4people who had a moderate, severe or profound intellectual disability and who were aged35 years and over in 2009 lived in a home setting. … Because people with an intellectualdisability are living longer, the likelihood of their outliving their caregivers has increasedsubstantially in recent years. These data highlight the importance of planning for both thecohort on the NIDD who are ageing and for their carers.” 10810.17 For many adults, both with disabilities and without, living as an adult in a familyhome is often suitable to their needs and the preferred choice of both the person and theirfamily. As illustrated in Table 10.1 109 above, 64% (16,742) of those registered on the NIDDlive at home with parents, siblings, relatives or foster parents. 49% (8,893) of people aged18 and over live in a home setting.10.18 It is vital that all relevant agencies work collaboratively to ensure that housingauthorities are aware of any person with an intellectual disability who is unlikely to continueliving in their existing accommodation, thus giving rise to a future housing need. This willbe facilitated through the development of good liaison arrangements between housingauthorities and relevant agencies, including service providers, through the establishment ofthe Housing and Disability Steering Groups. Furthermore, the strategic assessment ofhousing need protocol, which will provide for the sharing of information between relevantagencies in relation to the nature and extent of need at local level, will facilitate better andmore strategic planning to address future housing need. This will assist housing authoritiesin invoking longer term housing strategies for people with any type of disability, thusassisting in the prevention of crisis housing situations. HSE statutory and non-statutoryservice provider consultative fora 110 at local, regional and national level will underpin thismulti agency approach.Advocates10.19 The important role of an advocate in provision of housing for people with disabilitieshas been recognised. In many instances, an advocate may be required to liaise withagencies on behalf of people with an intellectual disability due to the person’s lack of108Annual Report of the National Intellectual Disability Database Committee, 2009.109People represented in this table may not have a choice in all cases in choosing their main residentialcircumstances.110The core purpose of the HSE Disability Consultative Fora is to ensure that the needs of people with disabilitiesare identified, prioritised and addressed, within available resources, in a systematic and equitable manneracross all the HSE areas.132