MENTALLY HANDICAPPED AND RESIDENTIAL CARE
- Session: 1996-97
- Date tabled: 16.12.1996
- Primary sponsor:
- Sponsors:
That this House notes with concern that the Department of Health's recent inquiry report shows that to meet the existing demand for residential places for people with a mental handicap an additional 20,000 to 25,000 places are now required representing an increase of over 40 per cent., yet answers to Parliamentary questions reveal that many thousands of places have been lost mainly through closure of NHS hospitals and units; and therefore urges the Government to advise local health and social service authorities to rapidly reverse these adverse trends by urgently reviewing their closure and sell off plans and acting on demands by relatives locally, to allow suitable existing hospital sites to evolve into residential village communities for people with mental handicap.