Responding to today’s launch of the Housing Options for our Ageing Population Policy Statement, Paddy Connolly, CEO of Age Action, Ireland’s leading advocacy organisation said;
“This is a welcome joint initiative by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Department of Health because it begins to address the needs of our ageing population in terms of ageing in place. The commitment to provide real choice to people through a catalogue of housing with supports is welcome, especially the recognition that an ageing population has diverse needs.”
He continued “Age Action believes that we should have a choice to age in place which means the creation of age friendly environments, including the provision of support services locally, which enable people to remain in their own homes and in communities for longer. The wider support needs of people as we age was to be addressed through the National Positive Ageing Strategy which was published in 2013 and is yet to be implemented.”
Emphasising the need to include older people in the design, planning and implementation of policies which affect them, he said “We believe that any policy should be informed by the needs and voice of the people it seeks to serve which is why it is important to enable the participation of older people in the design and implementation of housing and health policies. While there is a general commitment in the policy statement to give voice to older people, there are no specific measures on how to do this in the policy.”
Understanding that 1 in 5 people aged 55 and over reported problems with the facilities in their house and 1 in 10 people reported problems with the conditions of their house, Paddy Connolly said “Age Action welcomes the commitment by the Government to address the under-funding and inconsistent administration at Local Authority level of the Housing Adaptation Grant because this would ensure equitable access to the grant for all older people regardless of where they live.”
For Further Information:
Read the policy statement: Housing Options for our Ageing Population (hyperlink to https://health.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/HousingOptionsforanAgeingPopulationEng_Web_compressed.pdf)
