Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2022
961. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Health if her attention has been drawn to the Agency and Ageing in Place in Rural Ireland report produced by University College Cork, UCC, and Age Action; her plans for supporting older people in rural Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27789/22]
View answerI welcome the recently published report by University College Cork and Age Action on ‘Agency and Ageing in Place in Rural Ireland’. This important research report explores the experiences and preferences of older adults on ageing in place in rural Ireland and makes a number of recommendations to Government.
Across Government, we will continue to prioritise the needs and preferences of older people, including those living in rural Ireland. The Programme for Government 2020 commits to the vision of creating an Age Friendly Ireland and highlights the imperative to plan judiciously to meet the needs of our ageing population.
The Department of Health’s strategic goal is to support older people to remain living independently in their own homes and communities for as long as possible, in line with the Sláintecare vision for receiving the right care in the right place and at the right time. To this end, €195 million was allocated in Budget 2022 to enable the continued delivery of the Enhanced Community Care Programme.
The objective of the Enhanced Community Care Programme is to reorient healthcare provision towards general practice, primary care, and community-based services, creating end-to-end care pathways that will prevent referrals and admissions to acute hospitals and will enable a “home first” approach.
The Department of Health and the HSE also support a number of complimentary Support-Coordination models which help our older population to age in place and reduce the rate of older people transferring to long-term residential care. The Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme is an innovative partnership between Age Friendly Ireland and Sláintecare. The programme commenced at the beginning of 2021 and saw the introduction of a new person-centric, robust, support co-ordination service that will enable older people to continue living in their homes with a sense of independence and autonomy.
The HSE, in conjunction with ALONE, is also continuing the roll out of a Support Co-ordination Service that will support older people to live independently at home for as long as possible, by facilitating access to services including befriending, social prescribing, assistive technologies, and by coordinating linkages to local community groups.
The Department of Health is committed to delivering the vision of the 2019 policy statement on 'Housing Options for Our Ageing Population', jointly published with the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage. The central aim of the policy statement is to increase the housing options available to older people and to facilitate the integration of supports in a more coherent way, particularly between the housing and health sectors, with a view to facilitating people to live at home with dignity and independence for longer.
The final report of the group, published in June, details the significant progress that has been made to date and the plans for taking the strategic goals of the policy statement onwards. The remaining actions will be taken forward within the framework of Housing for All which aims to increase housing options for older people to facilitate ageing in place, in their own homes and communities, with dignity and independence, and deliver an appropriate range of housing and related support services, in an integrated and sustainable manner. The Department of Health will continue to work with the Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage, as well as all relevant stakeholders, to increase the housing options available to our older population.
The Government is committed to establishing a new statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support services. It is intended that this new scheme will provide equitable and transparent access to high-quality, regulated home care services based on a person’s assessed care-needs. The Government allocated €150 million of additional funding in 2021 to provide for 5 million more hours of home support. This funding has been maintained into 2022.
To conclude, it is important that there is a cross-governmental and multi-stakeholder approach to address the barriers older people in rural areas face to remain in their homes and communities as they age. The Department of Health is committed to addressing these challenges and supporting older people to age in place in rural Ireland.
