Elderly people pick home over care

NINE out of 10 elderly people in the Republic and eight out of 10 in the North would prefer to live at home rather than in care, a new survey has found.

However, the back-up services to allow them remain at home are not available.

Lead author of the report, Professor Hannah McGee, said the majority of the 2,000 over-65s surveyed would be happy to avail of outside support if it meant they could stay at home.

Unfortunately, community-based services were "not sufficiently developed" to meet this desire, she said.

The report One Island-Two Systems, an all-island comparison of health and social services needs of the over-65s, found older people in the North were more likely than those in the Republic to be caregivers (17% compared to 8%).

Prof McGee, Director of the Health Services Research Centre at the Department of Psychology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), said people often overlook the role older people play in looking after elderly relatives.

"While we are inclined to think of older people as those needing care and who simply draw on the services and resources of the State, in fact they provide a high level of care to other (mainly older) people. This does not count their key roles in other areas such as care of grandchildren, so in fact older people are net contributors which is often not acknowledged," she said.

Significant North/South differences were found for a range of services, including use of home helps, meals on wheels, chiropody, and services from opticians, dentists and social workers.

Of 15 services compared, nine were used by a higher proportion of elderly people in Northern Ireland "there seemed to be a better developed primary care service in Northern Ireland than the Republic of Ireland", the report said.

The report found a significant increase in the number of people over 70 attending GPs in the Republic between 2000 and 2004, "almost certainly linked to the free medical card for the over-70s which was introduced in 2001", Professor McGee said.

Participants in the North were seen more quickly in A&E by a doctor than those in the Republic (81% compared to 46% were seen by a doctor within an hour of arrival).

However, hospitals in the Republic may have been seeing more complex cases as more of the patients attending A&E were admitted to hospital (40% compared to 17%).

Director of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland Dr Jane Wilde said many of those interviewed described similar challenges across both jurisdictions.

"Many older people are living on a low income, have a disability and are living by themselves and are finding themselves on the margins of society. We urge those involved in policy-making to consider the findings of the report and explore the development of approaches to make the experience of ageing on the island of Ireland a positive one," Dr Wilde said.

*The survey was compiled by the Healthy Ageing Research Programme (HARP) Team at the Royal College of Surgeons in

Ireland (RCSI) and was launched by the National Council on Ageing and Older People (NCAOP) and the Institute of Public Health, a cross-border body.