Meeting told that elderly must get more say

Positive Ageing: Policy-makers and service-providers to the elderly tend to be paternalistic and over-protective, a conference on "positive ageing" heard yesterday.

Ms Mo Flynn, a senior commissioner with the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA), said all support services should be exhausted before older people were allowed to give up their homes and be admitted into long-term care.

Calling for the elderly to be given "as much self-determination as possible", she said: "We must ask ourselves, 'Who makes the decision that an older person is no longer able to remain living in their own homes?'

"Are family members and community health staff and indeed local politicians complicit in reaching decisions that will make them feel more comfortable, rather than considering whether the older person concerned has a right to say 'I don't want to move'? Are many of us not guilty of gentle coercion to ensure people do move?"

Ms Flynn, who has worked in healthcare with older people in Ireland, Australia and Britain, said she did not wish to deride the "professional and compassionate assessments" of many of her colleagues, "but I wonder whether we challenge ourselves frequently enough to consider whether the older person is at the heart of our decision-making".

The conference at Dublin Castle, which was organised by the Department of Health and Children, also heard details of a new health board scheme where elderly people will have their needs assessed for the first time by a single nurse or care worker.

Ms Flynn said the scheme - to be rolled out next year on a pilot basis in each of the ERHA's 10 community care areas - would mean an older person would not have to discuss their needs and give the same details to different people.

"Instead of having a constant flow of people coming in and out of your house, asking the same questions and looking for different forms to be filled out on, say, home help, meal services, and daycare, you just have a single assessment which will direct people to the right services," said Ms Flynn.

A survey of the conference's 200 delegates indicated that senior citizens felt undervalued in Irish society - with 56 per cent of respondents saying younger generations did not respect their contribution. Some 64 per cent felt senior citizens were discriminated against and 79 per cent felt they were prohibited from getting suitable employment.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, told the conference that the number of Irish people aged 65 years and over was set to double over the next 30 years and that adequate resources and facilities would have to be made available to meet their needs.

Meanwhile, Age Action Ireland has urged older people to ring a special freephone number today (1800 317 417) to lodge any complaints they have about age discrimination.

The initiative, organised in association with the Equality Authority, coincides with United Nations Day for Older People.