Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I am glad to hear he will be coming back to talk about housing and disability again because I will not speak about it tonight. I am particularly concerned about our very slow progress in allowing people to move out of congregated settings as a result of the shortage of housing. We have extended the deadline to 2020 but that has to be the outer limited of any extension.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to speak to the motion tabled by Senator Martin Conway and other Fine Gael Senators and amended by Senator Dolan. I am co-convenor of the all-party Oireachtas group on dementia. Senator Devine is also a very active member. Dementia is a recognised disability and is a serious issue in Ireland today for many people. In Ireland, there are 55,000 people with dementia. According to the HSE Understand Together information campaign, 4,000 a year and 11 people a day develop dementia. People with dementia, like people with any other disability, require a wide range of community supports to help them live well with their condition. However, we are all well aware of the substantial gaps in community supports for people with disabilities, including people with dementia.

The State needs to do more to adequately provide the range of supports for people with dementia in every community. It is in a great position to encourage leadership in the development of dementia-friendly communities across Ireland. What is a dementia-friendly community? According to the Alzheimer’s Society UK, a dementia-friendly community is defined as being a city, town or village where people with dementia are understood, respected and supported and where they can be confident they can contribute to community life. This definition is important. As for any other person with a physical or mental disability, people with dementia, as citizens like the rest of us, should feel included and involved and not excluded or forgotten. Dementia-friendly communities give people with dementia choice and control over their day-to-day lives. There are a small number of examples of dementia-friendly communities in Ireland. These communities undertook to build awareness and to reimagine the way we design our physical environments with people with dementia in mind. In Wicklow, the community focused on making all local services dementia-aware. In Donegal, helpline volunteers identified loneliness and isolation among people with dementia in a very rural county and developed befriending and home visiting. In Mallow, the primary health care centre had a signage campaign called The Crystal Project. In Ballina and Killaloe, town-wide signage projects made the two towns more dementia-friendly. These projects and others show what communities can do when they think of the community from the perspective of the person with dementia. Small changes to the physical environment can make a big difference to people with dementia. These are some good examples of successful dementia-friendly communities that we can learn from. The Government has made a start. Last year the Department of Health announced a programme to establish dementia-friendly community groups in each of the nine community health care organisations, with funding of €10,000 for each community health care organisation. The Department of Health dementia-friendly communities project is very welcome. It could go further and have national reach if the Department of Health and the Minister of State's Department worked together, which is the collaboration the Minister of State spoke about in his statement.

By enlisting and directing every local authority to take the lead in making their local authority area dementia-friendly, the Government could be even more ambitious. Enlisting and encouraging local authorities would mean that dementia-friendly communities would reach people living with dementia in all the towns, villages and townlands across Ireland. A small fund for local authorities to support this initiative would incentivise local authorities to get started.

It does not involve massive steps. The Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland has a great toolkit that is very simple to follow. It includes things such as a chain of transport for people who can no longer drive. If one has been an active member of a GAA club for years, for example, and suddenly, as a result of a diagnosis of dementia, can no longer drive to a meeting or a match, there is a chain of volunteers to bring people. It means people can stay connected, involved and active. It helps people to stay well and avoids the over-reliance on nursing home care, which is not always what people want and is very costly for the State.The Government can lead the way in making our communities and societies friendlier for people with disabilities, including those with dementia. It can draw inspiration from the active communities I mentioned in Wicklow, Clare, Cork and Donegal. Senators and Deputies could also take up a leadership role in making their communities and constituencies more dementia friendly. I call on the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to pave the way and show leadership in making Ireland and all of our communities more accessible and friendlier for people with dementia.

If a community is good for a person with dementia, it will be very good for everybody, as Senator Devine said, and will help with de-congregation. It is one thing to give a person a house, but if he or she is isolated in it and cannot leave it is a prison of another sort. Will the Minister of State consider requiring every local authority to take the lead in making communities dementia friendly and develop a small grant programme for local authorities to support that? Will he work with organisations like the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland to make dementia friendly communities the norm and not the exception? I hope he will consider my proposals.