Tracy Martin: More home support needed in the daily battle for the basics

I’m left stuck between a rock and a very hard place — the hard place being a nursing home placement at 55. That’s the choice the system is steering me towards, writes Tracy Martin

Tracy Martin: ‘Ireland talks about ageing in place, but that only works if the hours are actually provided.’ Picture: Philip Fitzpatrick

Two years ago, I wrote something that I never meant for anyone to see. It wasn’t a poem or a crafted piece. It was a moment. A moment where my pain was so severe, my mobility so limited, and my world had shrunk so small that I genuinely couldn’t see a way forward.

I wrote it because I didn’t know what else to do with the fear I was living in. I’m including two lines from that moment, because they show where I was then and where I am now: