Funding for dementia home care cut by €11m

Funding for home-care packages for people with dementia fell €11m in four years up to 2015 while nursing-home care investment rose €84m.

People with dementia should have a right to be cared for at home as too many are ending up in nursing homes because a right to residential care exists, say the Alzheimers Society.

Ireland has the second highest proportion of people in Europe aged 65 and over in nursing homes and hospitals. Professor Eamon O’Shea from the NUIG Irish Centre for Social Gerontology has called for “a new Fair Deal for people living with dementia in their own homes” and a funding model that “promotes universality and fairness in terms of eligibility and provision”.