In their 80s and fighting for help
McDonaghs’ eight-year battle highlights crisis in HSE’s home support for aged
AN elderly man who is struggling to care for his wife in their old age is pleading with the HSE for extra home help, after an eightyear battle to get support.
Cormac McDonagh, 85, and his wife Laura, 86, of Castlerea, Roscommon, have spent years seeking support from the State after Laura broke her hip.
As Cormac is now battling arthritis, he told the MoS he is finding it increasingly difficult to care for his wife.
Eventually, in 2016, they received some support – a half an hour of help three days a week. And while he said they would ‘not be able to survive at all’ without this support,
‘I’m 85 years old now, so it’s not an easy job...’
it is still not enough.
‘I’m 85 years old now, so it’s not an easy job. It’s enough to look after yourself but to have to look after your wife too, it’s not easy,’ he said.
However, as Ireland’s ageing population continues to rise, couples like Cormac and Laura are not alone. Recent figures released to Fianna Fáil Health spokesman Stephen Donnelly show that there were 6,458 older people on a waiting list for home support nationwide at the end of this March, a 19% increase on the same period in 2017.
The latest figures show there were 1,482 elderly people waiting in the Community Health Organisation (CHO) 2 area, which includes Mayo, Galway and Roscommon.
Minister of State at the Department of Health Jim Daly said there are a number of issues which are impeding access to home help. These include the availability of staff to fill posts, and their terms and conditions. But it is not that simple, however.
‘Home helps having to travel a 14-mile round trip to deliver half an hour of service does not make sense to anybody,’ he said.
Catherine Cox, a spokesperson for Family Carers, a charity which aims to support home carers and family carers, said the main issue is lack of funding.
‘Home care is discretionary. There’s no statutory entitlement to home care and that means the budget within the HSE in the particular area where you live will often determine whether you will get a home care package or home help or not,’ said Ms Cox.
‘It’s not demand-led, it’s resource -led and so it all depends on how much funding there is in a particular area. There would be cases where families are approved a home care package or home help and it is difficult to find home care workers in the area. Part of the reason that is the case is because home care workers’ contracts are not very good.
‘People are living longer, so more people require care than they did 15 years ago. So while they talk about upping the hours and the funding, there’s no way of meeting the demand. We now have thousands of people across the country waiting for home help hours and home care packages,’ she said.
Mr McDonagh’s personal situation has been distressing not only for him and his wife, but for others to see how the State is failing some of its oldest citizens.
Roscommon Fianna Fáil TD Eugene Murphy said: ‘To see a man struggling like that, an aged man, so dedicated to his wife but not able to do certain things, but does it to the best of his ability – he should be a top priority to get some extra support, but it’s not happening.
‘It’s a shocking way to treat people who have served their country well and have paid their taxes and now is the time they need help.
‘People like Cormac do their best to not let their loved ones go into nursing homes. It’s a very personal thing and I often see when that occurs, and there’s that break-up in elderly couples, it’s very traumatic.’
Mr McDonagh said his wife is not very mobile and if she needs to be lifted, he finds it difficult to do so. Both are on medication and he has issues with his heart. ‘There was no offer of home help for me at any stage, but I could manage, so we didn’t look for anything until my wife broke her hip.
‘I’m promised home help now in August 2019, and that’s a long way away and it’s especially a long way away when you’ve been promised it on many occasions.’
Deputy Murphy said the situation within his constituency is unacceptable. He said he’s had many families come into his constituency office in a stressed state and confused by their inability to get the home help they’ve been told they’ll be getting.
‘We’ve had situations here where people have come in and cried because they’re struggling and fighting for the support. It’s just intolerable that, of the national figure, almost a quarter of it applies to the three counties of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. It’s a shockingly high figure.
‘Whenever we make a request the response we get from the HSE constantly is that they’re on a list and they will, when the time arises, be considered.’
‘We have thousands of people waiting for help’