Brendan Courtney: Now we need to talk about Mum

Brendan Courtney's call comes against a background of mounting problems in the homecare system, with more than 5,000 people on waiting lists nationally.

Brendan Courtney, who made a moving documentary about the challenges of finding homecare for his father five years ago, said he is “angry” at once again facing a similar predicament for his mother.

The TV presenter said he believes his mother, Nuala, could be waiting for a carer for up to a year and called for the long-promised statutory homecare scheme to be implemented immediately.

Mr Courtney's call comes against a background of mounting problems in the homecare system, with more than 500 people on waiting lists in Cork alone and more than 5,000 nationally.

Mr Courtney’s mother broke her hip in early December, she has been in hospital since then, and due to complications related to the injury, is in need of homecare.

“There is Covid on her ward, and she is in lockdown now. I had to go and have a window visit with my mother,” he said.

“She should have been discharged last week but the hospital said 'if you take your mum home you will be off the hospital waiting list, and you will go onto the community waiting list. And you will be waiting a year for support'.” 

On Friday, his mother was approved for a care package.

Brendan Courtney and his mother, Nuala

“The finance is there so we have the package, but there are no carers,” he said. 

“She joins the other 5,300 people on the carer waiting lists, it’s a real problem.” 

This package would cover Monday to Friday, but Mr Courtney was told finding private carers, even just for the weekends, will be challenging.

Mr Courtney has been advocating for a scheme equivalent to the Fair Deal, which covers funding for nursing homes, to be established for homecare as older people are “falling between the cracks”. 

The real reason I am so angry about it is my Dad is dead five years in March. The documentary about my Dad aired in January 2017 and I was promised by the Dáil, by the then minister for health Simon Harris, that the homecare scheme was being piloted that year.

His campaigning following the documentary  We need to talk about Dad  led to an invitation to join the Sláintecare implementation advisory council.

“I was asking about Fair Deal for homecare, I was asking about it, they said it’s coming along. It wasn’t coming along, nothing was done” he said.

Five years on, the statutory homecare scheme is only in the first year of a pilot. It is being trialled in nine locations including Bandon, Carrigaline, and Kinsale, the Department of Health has said.

Mr Courtney said when the HSE temporarily removed some barriers to carers joining the workforce during the pandemic, hundreds took up the opportunity.

“They plan to fail the people on the waiting list, it grows exponentially every year. The one thing older people don’t have is time. My mother is stuck in a hospital, she wants to be at home,” Mr Courtney said.

“There are no carers and why are there no carers? Basically, you are not treated very well, there is no, what they call, a workforce strategy.” 

Instead, older people are reliant on nursing homes and hospitals with their choice of where to die removed from them, he said.