Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Helen McEntee, to the House. She has been a staunch supporter of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, both locally and nationally. There are almost 55,000 people living with dementia in Ireland and I guess that most of us will know somebody, a family member, a relative or a neighbour for whom this is a reality. The numbers are set to grow to 68,000 people in ten years' time so it is a massive challenge for individuals, for their families and for society as a whole. People with dementia need a wide range of supports that reflect the complex and changing needs of the condition. It is important to diagnose it early to plan ahead and then to get access to counselling services and other services which one will need as the condition advances.

My focus in today is on home care. Most people with dementia live at home and the majority want to stay there in a familiar environment because familiarity is a really important part of being able to live well with dementia. People want to stay in their homes and in their communities. Pat Hume spoke recently about John, and how important being at home in Derry is to him. A recent report by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Age Action and the Irish Association of Social Workers in UCD found that the preference of older people is to stay at home for as long as possible and that more than half of older people could remain in their own homes instead of going into long-term care if more services and home supports were available. It is official Government policy to support people to stay at home but it is not happening. We only need to look at the funding divided between long-term residential care and community-based care to see the reasons for this. Between 2009 and 2015, funding for residential care was increased by €84 million whereas the funding for home care decreased by €11 million. One possible explanation, and an issue that must be addressed, is that there is no statutory entitlement to home care. It is discretionary and when the budgets run out, it runs out.However, there is an entitlement to residential care under the nursing homes support scheme. Later this week, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland will launch its pre-budget submission calling on the Government to invest €67 million in 2017 for home care supports for people with dementia. This initial investment would meet the needs of 10% of people with dementia who live in the community. It amounts to a mere 6.7% of the total amount spent on long-term residential care.

There have been some positive moves towards better home care for people with dementia and this must be built on for the future. Under the national dementia strategy, €22 million was set aside by Atlantic Philanthropies and the Health Service Executive, HSE, for intensive home care packages. Will the Minister detail how this money is getting through to people? It is one thing to make the argument that money is being set aside but is it reaching people? To date, we understand that 130 home care packages have been provided out of a promised 500. Will the Minister clarify those numbers? People with dementia have a right to their home and family life just like every other citizen. In April, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and the Irish dementia working group, which is made up of people who have dementia, launched a charter of human rights for people with dementia. During the launch of this important document, Helen Rochford Brennan, who has dementia and is a wonderful advocate for the cause of advancing dementia care in Ireland, said:

Our rights outlined in the charter launched here today are fundamental to us living well but also for our families. We have a right to information, to diagnosis, to post-diagnosis support. We have a right to community based services and home care, and to be cared for in the place of our choice. We have a right to be part of our community, no matter how progressed our dementia is.

However, we need investment for those rights to be realised. Just as somebody once said that one cannot eat scenery, one cannot eat rights unless they are backed with resources. There must be multi-annual centralised funding and there must be entitlement. I call on the Minister to ensure this issue is addressed in the forthcoming budget.