Residential and day-care homes for the physically and mentally handicapped will have to meet new national standards from later this year, which have been agreed by the National Disability Authority and the Department of Health and Children.
Yesterday, the Government gave the handicapped, health services and State agencies two months to comment on the new regulations, before monitoring rules are finalised in April.
Planning for the new standards had been under way before it emerged that patients in a home run by St John of Gods in Drumcar, Co Louth, are regularly put in straitjackets by staff.
The disabled must enjoy "appropriate" levels of privacy, dignity, cleanliness, warmth and be involved in decisions affecting their own future, an NDA conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, was told.
In future, they, or their representatives will have to be invited to attend all meetings about their case, which must be fully reviewed every two years.
Residential homes, day-care and respite centres, and training units will have to properly log, investigate and act on complaints made by any patient, the 65-page set of draft rules declares.
Daily routines in homes, including meal-times, must reflect cultural norms, while the disabled should also be entitled to have to share a room with only one other person, the draft regulations state.
"Necessary routines should be organised as much as possible around your stated preferences and needs and are not rigid and institutional," the draft regulations state.
Recommending that each patient should have a written contract, it said homes should act "transparently" if they are responsible for the financial affairs of a patient.
The new standards will apply to all services for physically and mentally handicapped adults and children paid for by the Department of Health, though not education, transport, or other areas.
"We are conscious that elements of existing services would at present not meet all the criteria contained in the standards," the National Disability Authority and the Department of Health said yesterday.
All centres dealing with the disabled will have to produce annual reports detailing the quality of care offered to patients, along with audited financial accounts.
The rules were drafted after 512 submissions were received from people running homes and centres, patients, parents and agencies.
A pilot project will begin immediately, though the rules should come into force on a phased basis from October of this year, the NDA's director of research and standards, Ms Mary van Lieshout, said.
The National Disability Authority was set up as an independent statutory body in June 2000 to promote the rights of children and adults with disabilities.
