Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2021
682. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if the Government has recognised the high levels of post-traumatic stress, mood disturbance and moral injury that an organisation (details supplied) has identified amongst nursing home staff during the Covid-19 pandemic and which need to be incorporated into planning supports for this workforce; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58958/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra684. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health the level of funding that has been provided to help deliver employee assistance programmes or other counselling programmes to the nursing home staff that are dealing with post traumatic effects of the Covid-19 emergency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58960/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 682 and 684 together.
Nursing home providers, like any other employer, have a duty to ensure employees’ safety, health and welfare at work, as far as reasonably practicable. The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, requires employers to put in place systems of work which protect employees from hazards which could lead to mental or physical ill-health. There is an obligation on employers to risk assess all known hazards including psychosocial hazards, which might lead to stress.
In response to the current COVID-19 crisis the HSE is co-ordinating a comprehensive psychosocial response to address the overall emergency and its impact into the future. Further details can be found here www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/mental-health-services/psychosocial-response-group/
Each local CHO area offers a number of key supports:
- A Psychological First Aid Call Back Service - for health care workers and some targeted groups of the public, who may be feeling stressed or anxious about the impact of COVID-19
- Trained psychosocial responders will provide a brief telephone contact to help callers to cope with the daily challenges at this time.
- Psychological First Aid Informed Briefings for Healthcare Workers have also been developed and are available on HSELanD, the HSE’s training and development portal.
In addition, in line with the COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel recommendations, I was pleased to announce as part of Budget 2022 that funding is being made available to the HSE to undertake a further once-off programme in 2022 to provide enhanced psychological supports to nursing home residents, families and staff. Each nursing home will be offered an opportunity to participate. Department officials are engaged with the HSE on the roll-out of this intervention over the coming months and further detailed planning will be undertaken following the completion of the 2022 National Service Planning process.
For private and voluntary nursing homes, the Temporary Assistance Payment Scheme (TAPS) was established in April 2020 as a temporary administrative measure in response to the challenges faced by the nursing home sector at the start of the pandemic. As of 24 November, over 8,172 claims had been processed as part of the Scheme, reimbursing nursing homes for a broad range of expenses incurred as a result of the pandemic, including measures aimed at the workforce such as training and other supports. In total, €134.5 million has been made available under TAPS between 2020 and 2021.
While the standard assistance element of the scheme ceased at the end of June 2021 having already been extended twice, TAPS has broadly fulfilled its temporary purpose of providing financial support to nursing homes to address COVID-19. Although the risk is greatly reduced, it has not been completely eliminated, therefore the outbreak assistance element of the Scheme will continue to be available to nursing homes until the end of 2021.
As the pandemic has continued, many further support measures for private and voluntary nursing homes have been made available through the Health Service Executive (HSE), including the provision of PPE on a no-cost basis, the implementation of serial testing, the support and engagement of COVID-19 response teams and public health teams, the temporary accommodation scheme for nursing home staff and further supports. Many of these supports will continue to be provided by the HSE for the foreseeable future.
As the Deputy may be aware, the Department is currently conducting the first part of Phase 3 of the Safe Nurse and Skill Mix Framework (SSF). Phase 3 (a) will develop an evidence-based approach to determining the staffing and skill mix required in a long-term residential care setting. Staffing levels determined by the SSF are directed and implemented based on evidence from patient / resident outcomes as the key indicator of the staffing adjustment needed. This flexibility has proven successful in the previous two phases of the SSF. The National Taskforce for Phase 3 of the SSF commenced in February 2021 and has undertaken a review of the available international evidence and selected a model for further testing. Following an open call, nine pilot sites have been chosen from across the country to test the model identified. Baseline data collection in the pilot sites will start imminently, once local governance structures are in place, with staffing adjustments expected to be made in the pilot sites in Q1 2022. Based on the evidence Phase 3 (a) will, in line with other phases, be developed into a national policy for broader implementation. This flexible, evidence-based approach to nurse staffing and skill mix will enable informed staffing levels based on patient / resident need across the variety of nursing home / residential care settings in Ireland.
I am committed to establishing a Cross Departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group. The role of the group will be to facilitate the views of stakeholders and examine workforce challenges in home support and nursing homes. Potential areas to be considered include recruitment, retention, training, career development, and the sustainable employment of home care workers and nursing home workers into the future.
I have referred the Deputy's questions to the HSE and have asked the Executive to advise him of the relevant operational supports it is providing, internally and to the sector.
