Helping evaluate new models of disability service provision in Ireland

The National Disability Authority (NDA) has chosen to use Imosphere's FACE Assessment Tools as part of a study into the future direction of disability service provision in Ireland.

The focus of the study is to capture and evaluate the costs and benefits associated with moving people with intellectual disabilities out from large congregated residential services and into their own homes in the community.

In total, it is expected that 600 people will take part in the study, including over 150 participants who have been living in congregated settings. These participants will be interviewed both before they move and nine months afterwards.

This will involve:

• interviews with people with disabilities to document their overall care needs and total hours of care required and create profiles;
• interviews with people with disabilities to get information on their quality of life;
• observational study of quality of life; and
• collection and analysis of financial information.

The study instruments will collect information against each of the outcomes in the NDA’s recommended outcomes framework.

Anna Cunniffe, Senior Research Officer at the NDA, said, “We have held two very successful training sessions here in Dublin with Imosphere and as a result we now have 15 trained interviewers in the field. Our interviewers have all found the tool easy to work with and we plan to hold a further support session with Imosphere in September, as we get closer to data analysis. We would highly recommend the FACE assessment toolset and indeed Imosphere.”

View the press release.