Results 3,921-3,940 of 11,470 for speaker:Mary Butler

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: The new policy we work off does. Everybody welcomed that. The Deputy is correct; people can present with mental health illness but that might be masked by addiction to drugs or alcohol. Previously, that was perhaps a reason that mental health issues could not be addressed. That is no longer the way. We are building on that but it takes time. We started, as Dr. Dodd said, with some pilot...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: That comes under the remit the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and not mine. I take the Deputy's point, especially regarding older people. In my constituency in County Waterford, the social housing stock is where the challenge is. The budget is always tighter, whereas people who own their homes can avail of the budget more quickly in my experience in Waterford at least....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: I thank the Senator for her questions. On the recruitment piece and the strategic workforce advisory group, SWAG, one of the most important issues in the delivery of home care is that there must be agreed standards. Deputy Ellis raised this as well. Legislation is coming in the new year on standards for home care across public, private and voluntary providers. That is important....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: I thank Deputy Tully for her continued interest. At the outset I want to say that she did raise the issue previously about personalised hours for home care in the Dáil and I checked it out afterwards; I apologise as I did not realise they were available in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 1 although it is not available across the other CHOs. This used to be available previously...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: I agree with the Deputy in that one does not want a situation in which somebody might only be up for six hours per day. However, we face challenges because many people who deliver home care work split shifts and wish to go home in the evening. I often hear from families that they do not wish for their mother or father to be put to bed at 6 p.m., but in fairness, the home care worker has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: I will touch on boarding out because it is unique to specific areas in the country. We will certainly take a look at it. The Deputy said the fees have not increased since 2009. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: We have community care homes in the south east in counties Waterford, Wexford and Carlow. I visited a couple of them in Carlow with Deputy Murnane O'Connor. They are community care homes that provide low level supports for people. It is a step between a nursing home and leaving one's own home but a nurse is always on duty. It is a fantastic model because it is a home from home. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: These multidisciplinary teams are working well. I recently visited the community nursing unit, CMU, in Ennis, County Clare. It is a fantastic facility but I was struck by the ICPOP team being located within the hospital. They are the way forward. We have 22 teams in place and we will get to 30. There are nutritionists and dieticians, physiotherapists and clinical nurse specialists...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: The Deputy raised many valid points. Home care is one facet of supporting people to live at home. Some people receive seven hours a week and others 14 hours per week. The various CHOs are probably challenged in trying to spread the hours as much as they possibly can so that as many people as possible get the supports. We also have almost 300 day-care centres in Ireland. These are another...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: There is always a lead-in time. I will give an example. The committee will be aware that one of the items of legislation that I passed was the fair deal for farmers, which addressed an anomaly. Even though the legislation was signed in August, there was a provision whereby it could only be enacted after 90 days, so a lead-in time is always to be expected. It is important that we state...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: It is important that there be a specified date towards which everyone works.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: Everyone will have heard that we have a fantastic new forensic mental health hospital in Portrane in north County Dublin. It involved a €200 million investment and it is the best forensic mental health hospital in all of Europe. I have visited it a couple of times. It is a job well done. It took a while to get it opened, but all of the patients from the Central Mental Hospital were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: No, the living wage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: That has been welcomed across all the sectors that they receive a minimum of the living wage and that they also receive mileage when they are delivering home support. In north county Dublin, for example, I met staff in an organisation in CHO 9 a few months ago. They provided 900,000 home care hours last year. There was no waiting list and they are part of a voluntary organisation. With a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: When I took up the post there were 9,000 people waiting on home care. We got the number down to 4,000.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (17 Nov 2022)

Mary Butler: No, through both. At the end of the day, a person who needs home care does not care who is providing that once the home carer comes in the door. Previously, it was a 50:50 split. There was 50% of home care provided by the HSE and 50% by private companies and voluntary groups such as the organisation I mentioned. I received additional funding of €150 million in my first budget to...