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.”

Mr Kirwan said thousands of elderly people are living alone, confined to their homes and “leading lives of quiet desperation”.

“Most of them do not need much medical care, and could remain in their homes if they were given the home care supports including social visits,” he said.

“They could be looked after by the young people in their community. We need to train young people to be paid community workers and put them at the heart of a new system that includes family carers, public and private home care providers and community nurses.”

Mr Kirwan said there are tens of thousands of young people either unemployed or under-employed who could be trained as community carers. “They could be paid for taking the responsibility for looking after their elderly neighbours,” he said. “There is a simple FETAC Level 5 Care for the Elderly course that they could take and they would be ready to look after the non-medical needs of the elderly in their neighbourhood.”

Meanwhile, Friends of the Elderly, in conjunction with Cadbury Roses, yesterday launched their search to find Ireland’s 2011 Grandparents of the Year. Now in its fifth year, the competition will mark National Grandparents Day on Sunday, September 25. The campaign aims to encourage all grandchildren across Ireland to spend time with their grandparents and say thank you for all their care over the years.

Grandchildren all across Ireland are asked to say in 100 words or less why their grandparent or grandparents are the greatest.

*Further information available at: www.grandparentsoftheyear.com.