PRELIMINARY-REPORT FROM THE IRISH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY DATABASE

The Department of Health established a computerised national mental ha ndicap database in the Republic of Ireland in 1995 for the purposes of providing accurate information for planning services for people with mental handicap, Initial estimates indicate that 27,193 people are eit her in receipt of or in need of mental handicap services, This paper p resents preliminary prevalence data from the database which were analy sed by age, sex, degree of handicap and geographical region, Compariso ns are drawn with the findings of two previous censuses which are cond ucted in Ireland in 1974 and 1981 and implications for future service provision are discussed.