Social isolation the human cost of health cuts and loss of services in rural areas
THE first signs of spring are already breaking through in the Irish countryside and we are promised the Government’s capital plan on Friday will aim to put the heartbeat back into neglected rural regions.
But what of the elderly and disabled who have suffered some of the human cost of squeezed health budgets and cuts in local services?
The report from the Citizens Information board highlights how a lack of home help and no means of transport to hospitals are forcing some people in ill-health to uproot and live in a nursing home.
The nursing home will provide them with care, comfort and company but many would prefer to stay by their own fireside and maintain their independence.
Cuts to local bus services which are no longer seen a financially justifiable, the closure of post offices and even banks, along with poor broadband, are conspiring to increase isolation.
Remarkably, despite the emotional pleas of many families, the number of home help hours delivered last year fell, according to provisional HSE figures given to Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher. In Sligo, where the Government will launch the capital plan, the hours dropped from 433,067 to 406,354.
More home care packages were provided nationally but a minority of people get these because they are so expensive.
The necessity to go into residential care ahead of time is not confined to rural residents. However, their options are even fewer than people living in towns who may continue to struggle on if there is a bus service and a greater supply of home help staff.
The HSE has been finding
it difficult to get staff to work as home helps in some areas, even where the funding is available.
Neighbours can provide only so much support and if they themselves are on a daily commute to work the older person may have no means of making a hospital appointment.
The Government has promised to bring in a statutory home care scheme that would entitle people who are assessed as in need a minimum level of support.
But it will not be available any time soon.
“It will take years,” Junior Health Minister Jim Daly told the Dáil last week as it is still at the stage of evaluating the 2,600 submissions on the scheme.
“The responses are now being reviewed and a breakdown of them will be on my desk in the next two to three weeks. We need to build a scheme that mirrors the fair deal scheme where everybody is entitled to home help in their own home by law,” he said. This year, 17 million home help hours will benefit 50,000 people. Another 20,175 will get a home care package.