ALONE is a national organisation that supports and empowers older people to age happily and securely at home. We support individuals and their families and work with other organisations. We campaign nationwide to improve the lives of older people. We have a network of 80 staff and approximately 3,000 volunteers throughout the country.
ALONE provides social, practical and housing supports. We use individualised support plans to provide a connection for older people to access health, social care, housing and other services to improve physical, emotional and mental well-being.
In March 2020, more than 10,000 cases of Covid19 had been reported worldwide. The gap in community services for older people became obvious at the start of the pandemic. We now know from statistics that older people were the most negatively impacted by the arrival of Covid19 in Ireland. This gap in services throughout the country must be addressed and we must learn from it.
ALONE was invited to become a member organisation of the national public health emergency Covid19 subgroup for vulnerable people. The aim of the group is to work in collaboration with the Department of Health, the HSE and the Department of Rural and Community Development on a co-ordinated national response to support older people who have concerns, who may be at risk or who have contracted Covid19.
In March 2020, we implemented a national support line, operated seven days a week and 12 hours a day. Within two weeks of its launch, it began to receive thousands of calls from older people, three quarters of whom lived alone. This line, which was used in all Government publications, gave access to an integrated response from all our services and hundreds of partner organisations and other age organisations. There was wonderful support from civil society, the Garda, An Post, the GAA and many more but, despite these efforts, many older people were left to struggle. Calls to the national support line increased to 1,100 calls per day.
Research conducted by QJM: An International Journal of Medicine indicates that the cocooning measures may have had a significant impact on the physical and mental health of older people. Almost 40% of older people reported that their mental health was worse or much worse while cocooning, while almost 60% reported loneliness. One in 8 reported they were lonely very often, while 50% reported a decline in their quality of life. While cocooning measures may have been necessary at the time, there is no denying this had a negative impact on older people. We noticed that older people using the support line were becoming increasingly distressed by these measures.
The vaccination process has provided hope, but there are still challenges that must be addressed to allow older people to re-emerge into society. We and our partners in Age Alliance are concerned about the physical, mental and social challenges older people will now face as they break their period of social isolation and experience a loss of supports. There is apprehension, worry and anxiety about re-emerging into society and we must plan to step up services, clear backlogs in health and housing, and give encouragement and confidence to older people to volunteer and participate in society again.
Since the start of the pandemic, we have operated 365 days a year, seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. We have received 81,000 phone calls to the national support line, made 138,600 calls by staff and volunteers to older people and delivered 12,500 units of practical supports to 14,800 older people on an ongoing basis.
ALONE has recently called for a re-emergence plan for older people to be developed as Ireland navigates through the Government's Covid-19 Resilience and Recovery Plan 2021. Older people have been dealing with the repercussions of social isolation for more than one year and still have a long road ahead to rebuild their confidence and re-engage in society. ALONE's primary concern is that they be adequately supported in their re-emergence, with proper care and plans in place. This can be achieved with a stakeholder group to address the issues arising as older people and the more vulnerable re-emerge into society and the vaccination programme progresses.
Loneliness and social isolation has become an increasingly important issue, particularly in the context of Covid-19, as many older people reduced their social participation. Loneliness has been linked to an increased risk of early death, with some studies highlighting that older people experiencing high levels of loneliness are twice as likely to die within six years than those who are not lonely. ALONE co-founded the loneliness task force and produced the Connected Island report, which contained five key recommendations for the Government to implement to address loneliness. The task force has recently been reformed, with a broader representation of organisations working to address loneliness. We need a strategy, an implementation plan and funding to address the issues of loneliness, and clarity is needed on who is responsible for same. This should be linked to a public campaign to destigmatise, and make people aware of the effects of, loneliness.
To help support older people as they return to society, to plan for our ageing demographic and to learn the lessons from Covid-19, ALONE calls for a strategy and public campaign to fully address and raise awareness of loneliness; more housing with onsite staff support as an alternative to nursing homes; more access to technology that supports empowerment, self-care and ageing in place; the right to home care regardless of age; and the implementation or replacement of the national positive ageing strategy.
I look forward to members' questions.