Abstract
Introduction: Ireland’s population is ageing, and we must transform and adapt our health services to support older people to live as independently in their own homes and community, for as long as possible.
The Healthy Age Friendly Homes phase 1 is a two-year pilot programme which is a unique collaboration between Sláintecare and local government Age Friendly Ireland which takes a “home first” approach to delivering on the Sláintecare goals of providing safe and timely access to care, improving patient and service user experience, and bringing care closer to home.
The programme has four key objectives which are to enable older people to continue living in their homes or in a home more suited to their needs (rightsizing), live with a sense of independence and autonomy, be and feel part of their community and -reduce early or premature admission to long term residential care.
Methods: Older people aged 65 and above were identified via public advertising and engagement with community groups to take part in the programme. A collaborative approach to recruitment was undertaken by local co-ordinators, liaising with a broad spectrum of agencies and services, including personnel in local government, health services, transport, community and voluntary groups, Gardaí, elected members and others. In addition, a public awareness campaign was promoted via local media where participants could self-refer into the programme.
Nine local coordinators undertook home visits to older people living in the community. Needs assessments were conducted aligned to four key domains: housing, health, community/social supports and technology. The co-ordinators agreed a personal plan with each individual older participant and supported them to access a range of services which included housing adaptation grants, home energy improvements, health appointments, befriending or other community services, or technology supports.
Results: Data collected in the first nine months of the programme identified 1,175 referrals into the programme since commencement (as of 10th March 2022). Of these referrals, 757 assessments have been carried out relating to 453 females (60%); 303 males (40%). Mean age of participants was 76 years. 2,162 supports with an average of almost 3 actions per participant have been completed. The majority of supports provided related to housing (55.9%). 15.6% of supports related to health, technology (14.3%) and community supports (14.2%).
Conclusion: This Video sets out the collaborative approach taken by this new innovative programme working with the Health, Housing, Local Government and the Community and NGO sector. We will see firsthand how we can have a positive impact on an older persons’ living conditions and health and wellbeing as Geraldine tells of her experience of the programme and its impact on her everyday life.
Next steps: The success of this new innovative collaborative approach has led to progressing the service to widescale roll out and national application across Ireland, to include 44 new Local Co-ordinators and 6 Regional Managers, appointed on a permanent basis, based in all 31 local authorities with multi-annual funding provided by the Department of Health and hosted by Local Government.