§ Mr. Peter Robinsonasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many sheltered workshops there are in Northern Ireland as a whole and in each of the health board areas; how many of the places in them are allocated to people with mental illness; and what is the breakdown of these figures between each of the parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. John PattenThe Department of Economic Development is responsible for the training, retraining and436W provision of open and sheltered employment for severely disabled people. It presently supports four sheltered employment workshops for such people in the parliamentary constituencies of Belfast, West, Down, North—two—and Down, South. In general, these facilities do not cater for the mentally ill. The Department of Health and Social Services has a responsibility for the general social welfare of disabled people and the health and social services boards provide therapy workshops as follows:
- Eastern Health and Social Services Board—21 workshops
- Northern Health and Social Services Board—7 workshops
- Southern Health and Social Services Board—11 workshops
- Western Health and Social Services Board—7 workshops
The latest available figures—as at 31 December 1980—show that 175 people attending these facilities were mentally ill. In addition to these workshops, industrial therapy units are provided for the mentally ill at the six main psychiatric hospitals. The numbers attending are not held centrally. A breakdown of this information is not available for the parliamentary constituencies. However, there are five such therapy workshops in the east Belfast and Castlereagh district of the Eastern health and social services board, which represents the nearest comparable unit—for which information is available—to the hon. Member's constituency.