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Addressing Age-Related Complexity in Intellectual Disability (AARC-ID): an economic analysis of different support models

Background: The voluntary sector provides ~80% of care and support for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Ireland. Funding models make no allowance for growing age-related complexity. Without formal, sustainable supports for ageing in place, many people will be forced to move to inappropriate settings. Impacts on government budgets are unknown.
Aims and Objectives: The overall aim is to provide economic evidence on the needs, resources and outcomes associated with supporting people aged 40+ with ID to age in place. There are five underlying objectives:
O1 Estimating total volume of support need at the population level.
O2 Estimating costs and outcomes for different support models.
O3 Estimating population-level costs and outcomes (2024-2034) under different policy scenarios.
O4 Eliciting perspectives of people with ID, families and providers.
O5 Dissemination and future-proofing.
Methods: O1 entails secondary analysis of two population-representative datasets on older people with ID. O2 defines models of care, and estimates associated costs and outcomes. O3 combines O1 and O2 to project population-level costs and outcomes under different models, incorporating increasing dementia, physical health problems, functional limitations, and family carer ageing. O4 combines interviews and focus groups to complement quantitative results with lived experience. O5 employs multi-channel dissemination to reach key audiences. PPI is embedded throughout the research cycle.
Outputs: Primary output is a policy brief for the National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers and the Health Service Executive. The analyses will be published open access and open data in peer-reviewed journals. Plain English summaries will be produced for people with ID, their families and the general public.
Proposed impact: Establishing costs and quality of life for people with ID under various support models enables proper planning and funding for services, allowing the State and services to provide personalised supports in suitable settings, enabling more people to remain at home.