ALONE support plan to increase ‘housing with supports’ for older people under new Fianna Fáil health policy

Sean Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer of ALONE commented, “Reading the new health policy, it is apparent that many of our concerns for older people in the health system have been considered and an effort has been made to propose viable solutions. This policy paper upholds the objective of supporting older people to live in their own homes for as long as possible, which we believe is of paramount importance.”

“In this document Fianna Fáil advocate that primary services and community care must form the bedrock of our health system.  In particular, they acknowledge that most older people would rather ‘remain in and be cared for in their own home’ and that this approach is ‘the best value for money’. ALONE have been campaigning on this topic for years and hope that support from Fianna Fáil will see the government commit to providing quality options for older people with regards to housing with supports.”

Moynihan elaborated, “Current figures show that up to one third of older people in nursing homes have low to medium support needs which means that they could potentially be supported to live in the community.”

“ALONE wholly endorse the proposed abolition of the €2.50 prescription charge in the next two years, this levy has had an extremely negative impact on older people in need, with many forced to forsake their prescriptions and risk their health.”

Moynihan concluded, “We would welcome the proposed increase to home help hours as they have been dramatically cut by over 1.6 million hours in the last three years, forcing many older people into long term care before their time. We would hope that Fianna Fáil would remain fully committed to these promises if they to play a part in the next government as our ageing demographic is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed.”