ABSTRACT
The process of deinstitutionalisation has been marked, in some cases, by missteps where mainstream health and social services have failed to respond to the diverse needs of the individuals being deinstitutionalised. This chapter considers how the profession of intellectual disability nursing in Ireland has responded to such challenges and how it has redirected its efforts towards ensuring positive health and social outcomes for people with intellectual disability living in a community setting. The chapter comprises an overview of the history of intellectual disability nursing since its inception in the mid-1900s and argues that even in its earliest decades, the profession was positioned precariously on the margins of the nursing profession. The chapter shows that precariousness has been a defining feature of a profession that has faced serious challenges, perhaps the most significant of which is deinstitutionalisation. It argues that if the profession has been forced to refine the nature of its interactions with people with intellectual disability, it still remains committed to them, and their families and to obtaining high quality health and social services.
