Woman offers free aid to pensioner who lost home help hour

A mother of two, appalled by the HSE’s decision to remove an hour’s home help from an 89-year-old woman, has offered to provide the service — for free.

Linda Whelan, from Blackrock in Cork City, heard about the plight of Kathleen Comerford yesterday and said she could not believe her ears. She immediately offered to help Mrs Comerford.

The Irish Examiner of the Greenmount woman yesterday.

Mrs Comerford has severe arthritis, suffers from crippling back pain, and has no family living in Cork. She lives on the basic State pension so cannot afford to pay privately for home help services.

“My back is very bad and it means that I can’t clean up on my own... I’ve been crying a lot about this,” said Mrs Comerford.

According to Siptu, more than 500,000 home help hours had already been removed in 2012. The HSE is now seeking to slash a further 600,000 hours before the year end.

Ms Whelan, meanwhile, said she would never like to be treated by the State as Mrs Comerford had in her old age. “I am just appalled at how they could do this to a woman of that age. One hour of home help is not asking for much,” she said.

“My children are grown up. An hour a week to give a hand is nothing. It’s the least I can do. Both of my own parents are dead for the past 20 year but Mrs Comerford reminded me of my grandaunt who is 97 and who lived at home until very recently. If a person is able to, they should be able to live at home as long as they can avail of basic supports.”

Mrs Comerford has said she fears she will have to go into a home if she does not get more help to allow her to remain in her home.

Age Action recently lambasted the HSE for cutting home help hours without any advance warning.

The charity does not believe informed, individual assessments are being made before the hours are cut.

“We are receiving calls from people who have not received any notification that their home help service was cut or had been ended completely,” said spokesman Eamon Timmins.

Age Action is concerned that cutting or ending a person’s home help hours without advance notification is potentially very dangerous.