Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Gráinne Collins, Eithne Fitzgerald and other participants in a consultative workshop at the National Disability Authority in June 2013 for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The report also benefitted from the comments of three anonymous reviewers and from our ESRI colleagues. We owe a debt of gratitude to the CSO (Central Statistics Office), for facilitating access to the research microdata file, and particularly to Gerry Walker, who has always been extremely helpful in responding to our questions. We thank the CSO interviewers for their professionalism and the respondents to the National Disability Survey for giving so generously of their time to make this research possible. Any remaining errors and omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors. Executive Summary Introduction Despite the growing international recognition that mental health accounts for about one third of all disabilities, this is an area which is under-researched in Ireland. This report draws on the National Disability Survey (NDS) conducted by the Central Statistics Office in 2006 to examine the circumstances of people with emotional, psychological and mental health (EPMH) disability in Ireland. The NDS has a large sample of over 4,000 people with EPMH disability, of whom over 3,000 are adults, living in private households who were interviewed directly. We drew on the NDS data to provide an overview of the situation of people with EPMH disability in Ireland and to address three research questions: What accounts for differences in the extent to which EPMH disabilities lead to difficulties in everyday activities? What factors are important in enabling people with EPMH disability to participate in social activities?
Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Gráinne Collins, Eithne Fitzgerald and other participants in a consultative workshop at the National Disability Authority in June 2013 for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The report also benefitted from the comments of three anonymous reviewers and from our ESRI colleagues. We owe a debt of gratitude to the CSO (Central Statistics Office), for facilitating access to the research microdata file, and particularly to Gerry Walker, who has always been extremely helpful in responding to our questions. We thank the CSO interviewers for their professionalism and the respondents to the National Disability Survey for giving so generously of their time to make this research possible. Any remaining errors and omissions are the sole responsibility of the authors. Executive Summary Introduction Despite the growing international recognition that mental health accounts for about one third of all disabilities, this is an area which is under-researched in Ireland. This report draws on the National Disability Survey (NDS) conducted by the Central Statistics Office in 2006 to examine the circumstances of people with emotional, psychological and mental health (EPMH) disability in Ireland. The NDS has a large sample of over 4,000 people with EPMH disability, of whom over 3,000 are adults, living in private households who were interviewed directly. We drew on the NDS data to provide an overview of the situation of people with EPMH disability in Ireland and to address three research questions: What accounts for differences in the extent to which EPMH disabilities lead to difficulties in everyday activities? What factors are important in enabling people with EPMH disability to participate in social activities?
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