Plight of families struggling to nurse ill loved ones..
RTE reveals carers need respite
AN 84-year-old man struggling to care for his Alzheimers-stricken wife gets just two-and-a-half hours’ help from the State every day.
Jack Brennan looks after Bernie who is at an advanced stage of dementia and cannot perform the most basic tasks for herself.
His paltry home care package is to get his wife up, washed, dressed, fed, and back to bed in the evening.
He gets an extra two hours on a Friday during which he has to do all the week’s shopping and household errands.
The couple’s struggle will be highlighted in a special Prime Time documentary on RTE One tonight.
Jack, from Frenchpark, Co Roscommon, is just one of around 200,000 people who dedicate their lives to caring for loved ones – saving the State millions of euro.
But many need care too and are pushing themselves to the limit minding spouses, children and other relatives. Worryingly, there was a 35% increase in the number of carers aged 85 and over recorded in the 2016 Census.
Overall, carers provide on average 6.5 million hours of care per week looking after loved ones for almost the Jack and Bernie’s wedding equivalent of a full 40-hour working week. But almost 9% provide full-time, 24-hour unpaid care, with little or no respite.
Jacinta Walsh, 51, from Drogheda, Co Louth, takes care of her 18-year-old son Sam O’carroll. Sam has autism, is Bernie Brennan has Alzheimers learning disabled and has a number of health conditions including type 1 diabetes.
His behaviour is unpredicatable and can be extremely violent and Jacinta has suffered serious assaults.
He has attended a day centre since September as he left school in June.
Since Sam turned 18 in July there is no respite care available for him or his family.
Mrs Walsh tells Miriam O’callaghan in tonight’s programme: “I can’t tell you the difference it makes having respite.
“If you know you are getting a break in two or three weeks’ time, you can carry on in between but if there is no break on the horizon.
“That’s where we are now – there is nothing – that’s really, really hard.”
The documentary will be followed by a studio discussion where the issues raised will be debated with carers, experts and politicians.
■ Prime Time will be broadcast on RTE One tonight at 9.35pm.
rise in carers aged 85 or over recorded in last year’s Census
of carers provide fulltime 24-hour attention with little or no respite