Madam, - Your editorial of June 23rd quite appropriately states that the quality of nursing home care has been neglected for far too long and calls for urgent action in this regard.
While I fully concur with this statement, it could equally apply to a number of other sectors within the broader health and personal social services areas.
As an independent body established in 1999 under the aegis of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the National Disability Authority (NDA) has a statutory advisory role to play in the development and monitoring of standards in services for people with disabilities.
In partnership with the Department of Health and Children, the NDA has managed the development of the first draft national standards for disability services. The NDA forwarded the final version of these standards to the Department of Health and Children in October 2004.
The Health Service Executive has recently identified compliance with these national standards as one of the three key issues for disability services in 2005.
Your editorial also raises the criticism often made in relation to standards and quality systems. It is often perceived that standards tend to focus too much on processes and paperwork, and ignore other crucial aspects of quality.
No matter how important adequate record keeping and other practices are, it cannot be denied that quality is all about achieving the best outcomes for the customer.
When implemented fully, the draft national standards for disability will assess the quality of services in terms of processes and documentation, as well as measuring the impact the service has on the lives of service users.
The standards system that the NDA has developed, in partnership with the Department of Health and Children, aims to ensure that services for people with disabilities in Ireland are provided, organised and designed around what is important to the customer.
People with disabilities, as customers, expect responsive, flexible and quality services.
The NDA believes that, by working through a system of implementation and transparent, independent and external assessments, the national standards for disability services will ensure that services are delivered to a high quality and ultimately make a positive impact on the lives of the people who use the service. - Yours, etc,
M. CLAIRE O'CONNOR, Director, National Disability Authority, Clyde Road Dublin 4.