Age Action has welcomed additional funding for home help services announced today by Minister for Health Simon Harris TD but the organisation warned that thousands of older people will still not get the support they need.
Justin Moran, Head of Advocacy and Communications with Age Action, said: “Home help services are in crisis with growing waiting lists right across Ireland so the additional funding announced by Minister Harris today is certainly welcome.
“However, the reality is that even with these additional resources community care is still grossly underfunded and thousands of older people are simply not getting the support they need.
“An effective community care system needs requires ring-fenced, centralised, annual budgets. But we need to go further. The Government should start examining how we can bring in a right to community care for all older people in this country.
“People have a right to a nursing home bed; it’s time they had a right to stay home.”
Along with the Alzheimer Society, the Irish Association of Social Workers and the School of Social Policy in UCD, Age Action recently launched a report on the state of community care.
