State strives to have the elderly cared for at home

A MAJOR drive is to be launched by the State to keep more elderly people out of nursing homes.

Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney is now aiming to increase the number of home care packages from 3,000 to 15,000.

She told a SIPTU conference on the care of older people in Dublin yesterday that she intends putting a huge emphasis on the benefits of supporting older people so that they could live at home.

Ms Harney said all international evidence showed older people who stayed at home lived longer and healthier lives.

“We must ensure that older people who want to stay at home get the necessary support,” she stressed.

Ms Harney said around 20,000 people over the age of 65 were in residential care and almost 80% could get the care they need at home if the appropriate supports were in place at family or community level.

“Therefore, the issue for us now is to try and ensure we support as many people remaining at home for as long as possible,” she stressed.

Ms Harney also announced robust legislation and an independent inspectorate would be introduced next year to ensure the atrocities of Leas Cross Nursing Home are not replicated.

“You can never be certain something like that won’t happen again but I am certain that we will have in place robust legislation and the national standards that will be enforced by an independent inspectorate,” she said.

“Those that are prepared to exploit older people, in order to make money for their nursing homes have to be penalised.”

Ms Harney said the period of consultation for legislation to establish the independent inspectorate had ended and it would be brought through the Oireachtas by this time next year.

“We will have a standard, we will have an inspectorate but the greatest guarantee of enforcing all that is the capacity to be able to close people down and that is what we will do,” she said.