A person with multiple sclerosis in the west of Ireland has a very poor health and community service, according to a new survey.
There is only one consultant neurologist on the western seaboard and there is no dedicated adult speech and language therapy service, or counselling, the survey found.
The survey, compiled by the western regional office of the MS Society, was presented to the Minister of State for Health, Mr Frank Fahey, in Galway yesterday.
The survey was carried out during the summer of 1998 and involved a sample of 80 people with MS in the Western Health Board (WHB) region.
Some 17 services were examined, including public health nursing, home help, community physiotherapists, occupational therapists and others.
It represents the first comprehensive set of data on equality of access to services, and the experience of people with MS.
While acknowledging there have been some positive developments in the region, the MS Society says that in general the survey found some serious deficiencies. "It is startling to learn that for a population of 133,000 adults, Galway city and county has only one adult community occupational therapy post and two adult physiotherapy posts," the survey found.
The survey quotes the World Health Organisation's definition of health as "the extent to which an individual or group is able, on the one hand, to realise aspiration and satisfy needs and on the other hand, to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living."
The survey calls on the Department of Social and Community Affairs to review its implementation of all allowances relating to the care of people with disabilities and to address the needs of people in relation to access to services, information and transport. It says the WHB must ensure the impact of MS on individuals and families is examined in further research. It calls for a multidisciplinary and integrated response to MS in the WHB region.
The report seeks more public health nursing facilities in the WHB area. It also calls for more adult community occupational therapists; more speech and language therapists; more adult physiotherapists, with an emphasis on outreach services in people's homes; a counselling service for sufferers and their families; an expansion of the neurology service in the region; home help and an expansion of the MS clinic at University College Hospital, Galway.
The survey is called Focus for MS and is available from MS Ireland at 35/37 Dominick Street, Galway. Tel/fax (091) 562737; e-mail: msirelandgalway@tinet.ie
