Questions need to be answered by Minister Reilly [05/09/2012]

What people using the HSE services of Personal Assistant, Home Help and Home Care Packages need now is clarity and certainty.  Older & Bolder congratulates our colleagues in the disability movement on their successful campaign for a reversal of the decision to cut Personal Assistant Hours and stands with them in their determination to achieve clarity and certainty about how this reversal will be funded. They have embodied a spirit of fairness and solidarity on the issue of access to services and Older and Bolder is calling on the government to now display the same fairness in resolving the difficulties confronting old, young and people with disabilities.

Director of Older & Bolder, Ms. Patricia Conboy said: “We continue to call for a reversal of the cuts to Home Help hours and Home Care packages and ask Minister Reilly to come out in public and address the questions that concern citizens after six days of uncertainty about frontline services for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.  We need to know the following:

1. In the absence of Home Help hours and Home Care packages, what will happen to individuals who are medically fit for discharge from acute hospitals but who need social care support to return home safely?
2. What will happen to individuals living at home whose dependency and support needs have increased due to illness, disability, frailty and whose families cannot meet those support needs without additional help?
3. In the wake of cuts to Home Care services, will the budget for the Nursing Home Support Scheme be increased to cater for increased and earlier admissions to nursing homes?
4. If, as was mooted by Minister Ruairi Quinn TD earlier today, people currently in receipt of Home Care services are assured that their services will be maintained, what will happen to individuals and families currently awaiting assessment for access to Home Help and Home Care packages?
5. How will Public Health Nurses meet the needs of people in the communities who have identified, unmet needs and who are at risk?

Editor’s Notes
• Personal Care Assistant hours are available to people between the ages of 16 and 65 years.  They are not available to older people.
• Home Help services and Home Care Packages are available to people of all ages and recipients include children with life limiting illnesses, people with disabilities and older people.  The majority of recipients are older people and both services are targeted towards people who are vulnerable to delayed discharge from acute hospitals or admission to nursing homes.
• Just 3 % of the population aged 50 years and over are in receipt of Home Help hours. TILDA research data shows that 12 % of older people with dependency needs receive neither formal nor informal support services.