Background to the Research

• The Surveys of Disability in Northern Ireland conducted by the Policy Planning and Research Unit (PPRU) during 1989 and 1990 were commissioned to provide information about disability for use in planning policies and services. The aims of the surveys were to estimate the prevalence of disability among adults and children and to assess the circumstances under which people with disabilities live.
  

Research Approach

• The Survey methodology was similar to that used in a series of surveys carried out in GB by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS). Comparisons can therefore be made between major findings from the PPRU Surveys and those from GB. In addition the PPRU Surveys were tailored to take account of issues of particular interest in NI.
• The Surveys were concerned with adults and children who lived in private households or communal establishments such as homes, hospital wards or hostels. They focus on disability, which was defined as the restriction or lack of ability to perform normal activities. All types of disability are covered, including those arising from physical, mental, behavioural or emotional disorders.
• This report is the fifth in a series of reports emanating from the PPRU Surveys of Disability and was concerned with the use of health and personal social services and disability equipment and various forms of transport by disabled children and the effect of their disabilities on social and family life.
  

Main Findings

Mobility and Use of Transport

• The majority of children were able to go out, without or with the assistance of an adult, and had little difficulty getting about the neighbourhood.
• Ninety-nine percent of children had used some form of transport in the previous year, usually a car (90%) or public service bus (47%). A third traveled in transport provided by the Education and Library Board.
• Over a third of parents felt that they did increased mileage and spent more on travel than they would otherwise do if they did not have a disabled child.

Contact with Health and Social Services

• In the year prior to interview, 80% of children had seen their GP for treatment or tests in connection with their disabilities.
• Twenty-eight percent attended hospital as an in-patient and 59% attended as an out-patient. Almost two-thirds of parents said one particular hospital department or doctor took overall responsibility for their child's disabilities; this was usually the Paediatric Department (33%) or a GP (29%).
• A third of disabled children were visited at home by a health professional and 13% received social care services in their own home.

Use of Disability Equipment and Adaptation

• Use of 8 types of equipment was examined; most frequently children used in-continence aids (17%).
• Where numbers permitted, use of specific items of equipment within each area were examined.
• Ten percent of parents said they had moved house since their disabled child was born, usually because their old accommodation was too small. Eight percent had adaptations to their present accommodation.

Education and Special Education Needs

• A third of parents said their child's special educational needs had been assessed by the Education and Library Board. Eighteen percent had received a statement of their child's special needs while 4% expected to receive one shortly.
• Sixty-one percent of parents who had received a statement felt it took account of their views; overall 87% were satisfied with the process of assessment and the statement itself.
• Over half of all disabled children received ordinary education; those who were more severely disabled were more likely to receive special education.

Effect of Disability on Social and Family Life

• Two-thirds of parents said they or their partner first suspected that there was something the matter with their child, 22% were informed by a doctor.
• Almost half the parents who had spoken to a doctor about their child's disabilities felt that they were told too little; parents with a more severely disabled child were more likely to think this.
• Over a quarter of parents with other children in the family felt that having a disabled child had an effect on the other children. A third of parents felt that having a disabled child brought them closer together while a fifth felt that it caused stresses and strains in their relationship.