Funding to focus on improving residential care

Elderly:Almost €10 billion has been allocated to provide services for elderly people over the next six years. More than half the money provided is to improve residential care for the elderly.

Community units with a capacity of 50 beds are to be set up in different locations around the country to offer convalescent, respite or long-term care.

The National Development Plan (NDP) envisages that extra bed capacity will be created based on an assessment done by the Health Service Executive (HSE) last year of the current nursing home stock in the country. It also provides for an upgrade of existing facilities in nursing homes.

Money has also been allocated to fund the Nursing Home Care Support Scheme, which will replace the existing nursing home subvention scheme next year. The scheme envisages that some residents of nursing homes will pay up to 15 per cent of the cost of their care through their estates after they die.

A total of €4.7 billion is to be provided for the Living At Home sub-programme for elderly people who wish to stay at home.

The money will fund more home-care packages, home-help services and community intervention teams, all of which were set up with the purpose of keeping elderly people out of residential care for as long as possible. Funding will also be provided to elderly people who want to return home after long-term care in a hospital or a nursing home.

Day-care services, including physiotherapy and occupational therapy, are to be expanded to include evenings and weekends.

The NDP says investment in services for the elderly will have to increase because of changes in the population. It is expected that the number of people over 65 in Ireland will increase by about 165,000 over the next decade, with the percentage of the population in that age group rising to 20 per cent.

Funding for the elderly has been included as part of the plan's €50 billion social exclusion budget.

Age Action welcomed the fact that the elderly were included in the plan for the first time and described it as a "first step" in caring for the needs of the elderly in the coming year.

However, Age Action said the plan raised questions about who will provide services in elderly people's homes and who will train the workers involved in providing that service.

It also called on the Government to rethink its nursing home scheme, which it said could see elderly people having to pay up to 85 per cent of their disposable income on nursing home care.