'Gamechanger' care for dementia sufferers being impacted by recruitment embargo 

The Oireachtas Health Committee is set to hear from both the ASI and Family Carers Ireland about the current state of play for those caring for people with dementia.

The implementation of a “gamechanger” new model of care for people living with dementia is being impacted by the ongoing recruitment embargo within the HSE, according to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

Meanwhile, many carers for loved ones with dementia or Alzheimer's continue to experience “great difficulty” in accessing statutory services and supports, the ASI will tell an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday.

The Oireachtas Health Committee is set to hear from both the ASI and Family Carers Ireland about the current state of play for those caring for people with dementia.

While there is much scope for optimism given a recent “considerable increase” in funding for Alzheimer's supports in Ireland and advances in terms of therapeutics for treating the disease, nevertheless, there remain people caring for those with dementia who “are struggling, and feel hopeless”, the committee will hear.

ASI chief executive Andy Heffernan is expected to tell the committee that its most recent survey undertaken last summer saw people reporting “significant challenges” in terms of accessing services.

“They reported an administrative burden and a stress in having to ‘fight’ for services and support,” Mr Heffernan will say.

'Low mood and loneliness'

He is expected to say that some 63% of carers for Ireland’s estimated 60,000 people living with dementia have experienced difficulty in accessing services, with a quarter of those having experienced “great difficulty”.

He will say that people caring for those with dementia are “grappling with low mood, isolation, and loneliness”, with the majority of those saying that their mental health is “poor or fair” as a result.

Mr Heffernan is expected to note that implementation of the Model of Care for Dementia in Ireland is being hampered by the ongoing HSE recruitment embargo.

“The (model) is a gamechanger and its implementation will be a life-changing pathway from diagnosis to end of life,” he will say.

That model, first published last May, sets out, amongst other things, the need for a network of memory technology resource rooms, memory assessment services, and regional memory clinics across Ireland.

Mr Heffernan will argue that his society’s plans “are being impacted by the recruitment embargo within the HSE” and that Ireland needs “a timebound implementation plan” for the new model of care and “ring-fenced multi-annual funding for that implementation”.