People with severe intellectual disabilities are living longer and this is going to place major demands on health services in the future, the Health Research Board (HRB) has said.

It has published two new reports that look at the services that people with disabilities received last year. They also provide estimates of the type of services that will be needed up to 2022.

According to the reports, there are almost 50,000 people currently registered on the two disability databases - the National Intellectual Disability Database (NIDD) and the National Physical and Sensory Disability Database (NSPDD).

There are more males than females registered on both databases and between 30-35% of those registered on both are under the age of 18.

A total of 28,388 people were registered on the NIDD in 2017 and of these, 4,846 (17%) were in the severe/profound range. Over 7,500 (27%) of people on the NIDD were living in full-time residential services.

Caraíosa Kelly of the HRB highlighted that one of the key messages contained in the reports relates to the fact that people with severe intellectual disabilities are living longer now.

"The majority of those live at home, which is very positive. However, this increased life expectancy, combined with the ageing profile of their primary carers, is going to place demands on our health system to provide specialist care services and supports for both service users and their carers,"she warned.

The report on the NIDD noted that there will be lots of demand for services between now and 2022. For example, 2,179 new full-time residential placements will be required during this time, and the majority of these will be required in community group homes.

Meanwhile, those with physical or sensory disabilities also face problems.

"Notwithstanding continuing investment in specialist disability services, there is a recurrent level of unmet need for these services for those with a physical and sensory disability," Ms Kelly noted.

The NPDSS report revealed that future demand for services is greatest in relation to therapeutic interventions, such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

The reports were launched by the Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Disabilities, Finian Mc Grath, who said that the identification of future demand that has been outlined ‘will be invaluable to anyone involved in planning services'.

Meawnhile, the HRB said that 2018 is the last year that data from both the NIDD and NPSDD will be published separately. Later this year, data from these two registers will be merged to form the National Ability Support System (NASS). The aim of this is to provide a more comprehensive picture of HSE disability funded services.