A chara, – Once again the failings of our public service providers are being blamed on the increased life span of older people (“No funds left for nursing home care scheme”, Home News, May 19th). Eithne Donnellan’s article paraphrases a HSE source who states that older people funded under the Fair Deal are living longer than expected on average.
It is typical of the blame-shifting culture we inhabit that longevity is not celebrated, but rather seen as a problem. Our greatest living artist, at least in the eyes of many, is 94; our unofficial poet laureate is 72 and one of our finest political minds has left us at the age of 85.
In the face of increasingly negatives images of ageing in this country, much work has to be done to portray the creativity and contribution of older people to their communities – even when that community is a residential care setting. Society needs to work harder and in participation with older people to recognise the “demographic dividend” we have in our older population.
Most of us will be fortunate to live into old age and it should not be unreasonable to expect our ageing to be greeted with positivity rather than as a problem.
That people are living longer is a fact and cannot have taken the HSE and the Fair Deal’s administrators by surprise. That people are not living healthier lives should also come as no surprise, given the lack of emphasis put on primary care and preventative treatments under the HSE.
According to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, 45 per cent of those aged 65-plus 10 years from now will be over 80. To ensure this demographic trend is not viewed as a problem, our policy-makers need to redouble their efforts to ensure that Ireland is, as promised, “the best small country in the world in which to grow old”. – Is mise,
PETER KAVANAGH,
Information Networking Officer,
Active Retirement Ireland,
Mary’s Abbey,
Dublin 7.