Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 October 2016
121. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Health his plans to invest in home-based care to support and enable persons with dementia to remain living at home in budget 2017; and his views on whether an initial investment of at least €50 million plus in the budget is necessary which then must be built on year on year. [30294/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraHome care services are critical to allow older people, including people with dementia, to stay in their own homes for as long as possible. They can also provide respite to carers and support them in their caring role. I am pleased to say that overall funding for services for older people has increased to €765 million in 2017 - an increase of €82 million since the HSE's 2016 Service Plan. This has focused on additional funding for home care in particular and is aimed at allowing people to continue to live in their own homes and at facilitating discharge of older people from acute hospitals. A significant proportion of those availing of home care services are people with dementia.
Since the Government took Office, we have significantly increased the funding available for home care. An additional €40m (including €10m as part of the forthcoming Winter initiative) already provided in 2016 represented an increase of over 13% in the total funding available, and means that the number of Home Care Packages provided this year increase from 15,450 to 15,800 and home help hours from 10.4 million to 10.57 million.
The Winter Initiative will also provide another €1.4m for home care this year which will provide a further 650 Packages by year's end. These will be targeted at 10 specific hospitals to allow people to be discharged home quickly. Over 2016 the number of Home care Packages being provided will have increased by 1,000.
In 2017, €14.6m of the Winter Initiative will be to fund home care, and there will be another €3.8m to maintain existing levels of service and €10m for new developments. Details of the services to be provided with these funds will be set out in the coming weeks in the forthcoming HSE 2017 National Service Plan.
The Implementation Programme, co-funded by the HSE and the Atlantic Philanthropies, which accompanies the Irish National Dementia Strategy, includes the provision of Intensive Home Care Packages for people with dementia valued at €22.1 million. To date 133 people living with dementia have benefitted at an average cost of €1,000 per package per week and 71 people are currently in receipt of such a package. Up to 500 people with dementia and their families are expected to benefit from Intensive Home Care Packages over the lifetime of the Implementation Programme.
These Dementia-Specific Intensive Home Care Packages, together with mainstream home help and standard packages, will facilitate people with dementia whose needs have been assessed as requiring these supports to remain in their own homes and communities in accordance with the objectives of the National Dementia Strategy.
