Mandatory student community service ‘would address crisis in care for elderly’

WITH services for the elderly being curtailed or cut, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has been called on to join forces with Social Inclusion Minister Joan Burton and introduce a community service “pay-back year” for third-level students.

Dermot Kirwan, spokesman for the Friends of the Elderly said all students should be obliged to do a mandatory number of community service hours throughout their third-level education.

“We are rapidly approaching a national crisis in the care for the elderly,” Mr Kirwan said. “Our current funding system is not working. Funding for home care and nursing home care is hugely inadequate and unevenly applied. Our elderly are being sent home from hospital without any convalescence and with scant community supports.”