Stephen Cadogan: We all need to remember to look after our rural elderly
In these uncertain times, we should remain conscious of the impact on the rural elderly of cuts to public services.
According to Age Action Ireland, older people in rural areas who use their services tell them they have been affected by changes in transport, communications, health care, income and security.
In many places, there is no direct transport to hospitals serving rural areas, leaving older people to pay for taxis to attend appointments.
For people living in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, for example, there is no direct link with the local hospital in Naas and the cost of a taxi is €30 each way.
Older people are the most frequent users of local medical services.
But almost 5,000 people in rural areas do not have access to a permanent GP.
According to the Irish College of General Practitioners, only 7% of rural patients live within walking distance of their GP, compared to 89% of urban dwellers.
It’s one of the difficulties of country life, but we should bear in mind that it is especially difficult for the elderly.
Older people in rural areas also find it challenging to access home care supports. The snag frequently is that home help staff are not paid for transit time between calls.
This can make it difficult to obtain home help services, especially where the practitioner must travel a long way to provide a half an hour of care to different clients.
Rural public transport is also needed for older people to access work, education, leisure, and social services.
Recent reports that Iarnród Éireann routes are under threat, and doubts about the sustainability of the Bus Éireann expressway service have added to transport concerns. Some older people could be left with their travel passes, but no buses or trains on which to use them.
As for those still driving, they are among the worst affected by rapidly rising motor insurance costs.
In another real life example of how cuts affect people, the 260 residents in the west Galway village of Cleggan have been left to travel three kilometres to nearby Claddaghduff for postal services, since the Cleggan post office closed in September, 2015.
It’s not a big problem for the able-bodied, but pensioners and people with disabilities have struggled to collect their benefits. More than 200 post offices have been closed by An Post since 2007.
Meanwhile, the banking sector’s efforts to close or restrict branches and to push customers online have also eroded older people’s control over their finances.
This has made them more reliant on family members to conduct their business, making them vulnerable to financial abuse, which is the second most commonly reported form of elder abuse.
The movement to life online is all very well for many, but half of those aged 60 to 74 in Ireland (more than 260,000 people) have never used the Internet.
Among those aged 75 and over, the figure is negligible, at only 3%.
These figures come from Age Action Ireland, which provides one-to-one computer training to some 3,500 older people per year.
Even for “silver surfers” on the Internet, the next problem for rural older people is broadband, or the lack of it. Like all rural people, they have long been waiting for fast broadband.
For older rural people, who inevitably experience isolation and loneliness, particularly as younger generations move away, a good broadband connection could be invaluable.
Not all older rural people can afford a device to get on the internet.
In its 2013 Survey on Income and Living Conditions, the CSO found that older rural people consistently had a higher at risk of poverty rate than those living in urban areas, by as much as ten percentage points.
Poverty doesn’t stop predators, whether carrying out elder abuse, or even more serious crimes.
CSO figures show that assaults on victims over the age of 65 more than doubled since 2006. Fear of crime has become a real mental health damaging phenomenon for many older people.
It is clear that we all need to remember to look after our rural elderly in these times.
