Search

The views of older people living in the community on the health and social services available to them had not previously been assessed on a large scale in Ireland. The National Council on Ageing and Older People, in partnership with the Western Health Board (WHB) and the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) which was formerly the Eastern Health Board, has now carried out such an assessment. It is anticipated that this will assist in planning for services for older people. A survey instrument was developed based on both literature review and focus group work. Groups of older people and key health and social service professionals in the two board areas were consulted to identify the most important concerns to be addressed in the study.

HeSSOP is a collaboration across the National Council on Ageing and Older People and two health boards: the Eastern Regional Health Authority and the Western Health Board. Information on service use, service evaluation and perceptions of service need of a large community-dwelling group will be reported separately for each board in the first instance; this is to assist service planning for 2000. A combined report will allow further analysis of patterns of use etc., including comparisons across boards to identify common and locationspecific challenges to service delivery. While the project will cover only two of the country���s health boards as constituted at the time of the work, the particular boards involved represent the most urban and one of the most rural of the boards. Thus findings are expected to have value for other health boards. The wider issue of consultation strategies to involve older people will be addressed and will be included in the combined survey report.

The SAVI Report: Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland. Executive Summary

The prevalence of sexual violence in Ireland is unknown. Incomplete evidence from crime statistics, previous research reports and service uptake figures is insufficient to understand the nature and extent of the problem and to plan and evaluate services and preventive interventions. The main aim of the SAVI study was to estimate the prevalence of various forms of sexual violence among Irish women and men across the lifespan from childhood through adulthood. Additional aims of the study were to describe who had been abused, the perpetrators of abuse, the context in which abuse occurred and some psychological consequences of abuse; to describe the pattern of disclosure of such abuse to others, including professionals; to document public beliefs about and perceived prevalence of sexual violence; to assess public willingness to disclose abuse to others in the event of a future experience; to document particular challenges experienced in addressing sexual violence by marginalised groups; and to make recommendations for future developments in the areas of public awareness, prevention, service delivery and policy development. METHOD A survey assessing the prevalence of sexual violence was conducted by anonymous telephone interviews with randomly selected participants from the general population in Ireland. They were interviewed at home in the period March to June 2001. Many ethical and safety considerations were built into the study design to ensure that a high quality and sensitive approach was used. Interviewers were highly qualified and underwent additional training and regular supervision in the conduct of the interviews. A wide range of safety mechanisms were put in place to reassure participants about study authenticity and to provide them with access to professional services if required. RESULTS Study Population Over 3,000 randomly selected Irish adults took part in the study (n = 3,118). This represented a 71 per cent participation rate of those invited. For a telephone survey, and on such a sensitive topic, this very high participation rate means that the findings can be taken as broadly representative of the general population in Ireland. The information available can therefore provide important and previously unavailable information on the extent and nature of sexual violence in Irish society.