Introducing our campaign

Mrs Justice McGuinness along with four Older & Bolder advocates helped to introduce our MAKE HOME WORK campaign on Wednesday November 23rd. 

At the event Patricia Conboy, Director of Older & Bolder called for a change in how we think, how we talk and how we act in relation to ageing and older people.

The following the address Patricia gave on the day

Introduction

Good morning. Thank you Mrs. Justice McGuinness for chairing our meeting this morning; and thank you to each of you in the audience today for being with Older & Bolder on this important day. I also want to say how delighted I am to be sharing a platform this morning with the four Older & Bolder advocates who are sitting here beside me and who will speak to you shortly.

Why the right to age well at home ?

Home is a special place for most of us. The vast majority of Irish adults (85% - according to the Ipsos MRBI poll findings that we are publishing today; and 93 % of those aged 45 years +) would like to live in their own home when growing older.  Older & Bolder’s campaign, MAKE HOME WORK, The right to age well at home is about ensuring that all of us who want to grow old in our own homes can do so.

For the last 25 years, all Irish governments have said that we should be able to age well, with dignity and independence, in our own homes. However, policy implementation has been weak. Our system of community care remains patchy and inefficient.  The MAKE HOME WORK campaign is about envisioning an Ireland where the right to age well – and fearlessly – at home becomes a reality.

Make Home Work

Older & Bolder’s campaign has been shaped by older people’s understanding of healthy ageing and wellbeing.  Throughout the first half of 2011, we talked to hundreds of people at our Health and Social Care forums around the country, and in nursing homes and Day Care Centres also.  There was lots of fun and buzz at those meetings – but also very serious conversation.  What those conversations affirmed for Older & Bolder is that people of all ages need to change how we think, how we talk and how we act in relation to ageing and older people.

This morning, we are formally introducing the MAKE HOME WORK campaign with three key messages :

Thinking about Ageing and Older People

First, how we think about ageing and older people has to change. Typically, older people are represented as consumers of health services, a drain, a burden in terms of increasing population and impact on health and social expenditure.  Older & Bolder wants to flip that stereotype and present a more accurate picture of older people who are active managers and participants in relation to their own health and well-being and who contribute enormously to families and communities. We have, as just one concrete example, the recent findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (2010) as evidence of the high level of care that older spouses provide to each other. 

Talking about Ageing and Older People

Second, how we talk about ageing and older people has to change. When we do talk  about supports and services for older people, the emphasis tends to be on nursing homes and long stays in hospital beds. These are important issues but we need to broaden the narrative and discussion...The clear message from Older & Bolder’s 2011 forums is that health is about more than medicine alone.  Older people place a high value on access to GP, primary care and hospital services.  But older people have also shared with us their broad understanding about what is needed to age well at home : this includes accessible local transport, a secure income, opportunities for involvement in vibrant community and voluntary groups. Those findings are also mirrored in the poll findings published today.  In excess of 80 % of respondents deemed a secure pension, access to public transport and a Medical card as being required to age well at home. Note that two of the three most highly rated supports - income and transport - are not about the health system.

Planning for the Future

And third, the last of my three messages is about planning. We all need to plan for our future selves.  And governments need to plan for population ageing.  Currently, it is very hard for individuals to do this because we have no guarantee – in event of illness – of supports in the home and community.  Home and community supports are available on a discretionary basis.  We need to reverse the current situation where access to home and community care is discretionary, unequal and varies from one region to another.

There is a pressing need to establish the right to care in the home and community and to clarify what people’s rights and entitlements may be.  The Ombudsman has highlighted the fact that we have a health service operating, and I quote, “half in and half out of a legislative framework”. She has stated clearly that “People do not know where they stand in terms of their entitlements and in terms of the HSE’s obligations to provide services” (2010).  In Older & Bolder’s view, this situation must change.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our MAKE HOME WORK campaign will run from November 2011 to November 2012.  We have a vision to present to decision-makers about the right to age well at home, about changing how we think, how we talk and how we act about ageing and older people.  We all know that these are tough times.  A vision in tough times calls for courage but we do not lack for courage.  With your support, with the support of our alliance of 8 member organisations  – and with the support of many people around the country who are with us in spirit today – Older & Bolder is implementing a campaign that can make a difference to people’s lives. 

I know that President Michael D. Higgins Inauguration Speech earlier this month struck chords for people all over the country.  I want to finish with the words that struck a chord for me.  President Higgins said that he was “inviting citizens, of all ages, to make their own imaginative and practical contribution to the shaping of our shared future. Active citizenship - he said - requires the will and the opportunity to participate at every level and in every way – to be the arrow; not the target.” 

Older & Bolder’s MAKE HOME WORK campaign is about our shared future.  Let’s play our part in shaping that future.