Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, to the Seanad. Families are applying to the HSE's home care hours scheme and receiving approval, which is great, but no help or home care is forthcoming. There are delays and backlogs and the shortage of staff is having an impact. I request an update from the Department of Health on waiting times for people who have been approved for family home care hours by the HSE in the community healthcare west area, which comprises counties Galway, Roscommon and Mayo. Older people and those with disabilities in rural areas are urgently waiting for help.

The home support scheme is for people over the age of 65 and for anybody with a disability or early onset dementia. The Minister of State has done a great deal of work in this area. People usually avail of the scheme after a hip operation or any stay in a hospital. It helps them settle back into their homes. The challenge is that we have very few step-down facilities. In rural regions, particularly in Roscommon and east Galway, the wide geographic areas result in higher mileage costs for healthcare assistants. We see younger members of the family moving away from home, which makes it more difficult. There was also an increase of 20% in the number of people aged over 65 in the most recent census. Our area of Roscommon and east Galway is particularly affected as we have an older age cohort.

Frailty is also a serious issue, as the Minister of State will be aware. After their first fall, many older people suddenly lose the confidence to walk around by themselves with walking or mobility aids. Our older loved ones are unable to handle a bath, a shower, dressing or shaving and need home help.

Under the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future, there are commitments to enable older people to live in their own homes with dignity and independence. Staff within the community healthcare organisation, CHO, 2 area, or the community healthcare west area, are dealing with very significant backlogs and are doing their best to meet demand. I am aware of the challenges in recruiting to the HSE. We need to increase the use of ehealth assistive technologies.

Our social services in Ballinasloe are going to be opening up, but slowly. This has also had a great impact on home care services. The HSE has the option to engage approved third party providers of home care, that is, consumer directed home support, CDHS. How well is this working? Do private providers have the staff to take these referrals from the HSE? We need to look at training. The Minister of State brought up the level of the minimum wage and the comparisons between the HSE and the private sector.

I am aware of the four sites for the new home support pilot the Minister of State has announced and that she is planning to provide for an additional 230,000 hours in CHO 2, that is, Galway, Roscommon and Mayo. This is to look at Tuam, Athenry and Loughrea. In last year's budget, 5 million additional home care hours were provided for 2021. That followed on from the 19 million hours provided for 2020 to alleviate community waiting lists for home care and to support people in avoiding hospital. I have a number of questions for the Department of Health. When will more pilot schemes come on stream, particularly for Ballinasloe and the rest of the CHO 2 area?Ballinasloe has a catchment of nearly 14,000, taking into account both the rural zone and the urban area. What are the figures? What are the waiting lists? How many third-party providers are being used by the HSE to support the roll-out of the programme? What is the status of the new home support office, which I realise was to be opened only very recently, in August? There are 130 posts under the interRAI system. What are the numbers in this regard? Could I have a timeline for the new statutory home care scheme? I am aware of the Minister of State's commitment to home care support. She was a spokesperson on health previously and would have known this area extremely well.

We need access to resources in rural areas, wide geographical areas. There are challenges in this regard because there is a wider area to cover. For healthcare assistants, we are talking about mileage costs. We are talking about increased costs for private providers. Older people are living alone in isolated areas. When HSE home care hours are approved, they are urgently required. We need to make sure we are supporting people to live with dignity and independence in their own homes.