12 hours ago
RTE programme has put the ‘fear of God' in elderly people about nursing homes
Cllr Michael Kilcoyne from Castlebar raised the issue at this week's Regional Health Forum West Meeting, where he was informed by the HSE that the average person receiving home help in Mayo is seen for 6.3 hours a week. The data provided by the HSE showed that Mayo Home Support delivered 48,458 hours of assistance to 1,595 clients in April, with 224 people currently on the waiting list.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Cllr Kilcoyne said those kinds of hours are of "no use".
"If that's the average, that's less than an hour per day. Many of these people are discharged from hospital on the basis that they are going to get home help. They have nobody at home, and in many cases, the person at home is as bad as themselves".
He continued, "For the Minister of Health and the Department of Health to say we want to keep people at home, that's nonsense, that's fairyland stuff because they're not making any effort to do it even though it would save the taxpayer millions of euro."
In the meeting, Cllr Kilcoyne expressed his disappointment at the number of people on the waiting list and asked how the forum plans to deal with it.
The Regional Executive Officer for HSE West and North West Tony Canavan responded by saying, "We're currently just exceeding the service plan commitment in terms of home help. We are providing slightly more than we are funded for. The hours and the levels of service have increased year on year for the last number of years."
Mr Canavan explained the data shows a "growing need" for home help services. He confirmed that they will be seeking additional funding in the future as he understands that, "for most people in those circumstances, they do want to remain home for as long as possible."
Cllr Kilcoyne agreed that the HSE should absolutely get more money in the budget saying that "it's money well spent.' He agreed that people want to remain in their homes for as long as possible and avoid going into nursing homes, "particularly after the recent television programme, I'm not saying every place is like that, but the fear of God is in some of them." he said.
