'Poor cousin' treatment of home care

Older & Bolder today calls for the implementation of the Law Reform Commission recommendations on professional home care and for a wider public debate on long-term care. 

Patricia Conboy,  Director of Older & Bolder said,

 “We welcome the Law Reform Commission report which takes a holistic and person-centred view of the care of older people.

“As the report states, the HSE is not legally required to provide home care services and this, in Older and Bolder’s  view  has led to a “poor cousin” treatment of home-care in Ireland. The whole area is seriously underfunded. Older people have no statutory right to home-care and this had resulted in an ad-hoc approach which is at best confusing for people relying  on the services  at a most vulnerable time in their lives.

“There is a commitment in the Programme for Government to review the financing of long-term care and we  are now calling for a public debate about how that care is  financed and legislated for.  This debate needs to include older people who may need to use the services and are entitled to have their voices heard.” 

Older and Bolder’s campaign  - ‘Make Home Work – the right to age well at home’  - makes it clear that home-care makes social and economic sense.   

There now needs to be an integrated approach from government to make it  happen.