North Cork Fine Gael Councillor John Paul O’Shea has welcomed the publication of the Government’s ‘Housing Options for our Ageing Population’.
The Joint Policy Statement was launched recently by Cllr O’Shea’s colleagues, Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal, Damien English TD, and Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Jim Daly TD. The Statement reaffirms the strong Government commitment to policies that support older people to live in their own homes and communities with dignity and independence for as long as possible.
Cllr. O’Shea said the Statement would make an important contribution in helping to meet the demographic challenge that Ireland faces in respect of the housing needs for its increasingly older population. The Statement, he said, is about increasing the options available to people as they grow older, creating more choice in the housing options available to people and recognising the connection between healthcare supports and housing.
The Statement sets out a framework by which the Government aims to create a much wider spectrum of options and choices for older people in Ireland. The over-arching aim being to ensure that people can grow old and live in a community of their choosing, with dignity and independence.
The Steering Group that helped put the Statement together- made up of key stakeholders in Government and from across the sector- has developed a number of key principles that will underpin Government policy on housing for older people and on which the policy framework was constructed. These include:
- Putting in place measures to ensure that sustainable housing is provided in the right location to enable people to age in the community;
- Designing housing and the environment in accordance with the principles of sustainable lifetime housing;
- Promoting the use of assistive technology to support people to live independently;
- Ensuring there is adequate consideration to the need for social connectedness in devising policy; and
- Working collaboratively with all stakeholders to achieve the policy objectives.
There are 40 Action points in the Plan. Key initiatives include:
- Meeting the 2018 Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing recommendations on older people housing including reviewing and adding funding to the Housing Adaptation Grant Scheme.
- Specific schemes to assist people wishing to rightsize in both social and private housing
- New funding mechanisms (as part of the overall budgetary process) to assist in generating private sector involvement in the provision of older people housing
- A high level blueprint for Co-Operatives, Approved Housing Bodies (AHB’s) and developers that will include guidance on the funding mechanisms available to deliver older people specific developments, advice on how to engage with the planning process and Design Templates for the purpose of constructing new older person housing developments or refurbishing existing facilities;
- Funding innovative approaches to developing new housing options for older people including home sharing and house-splitting
- Developing an (optional) Design for Life rating mechanism for homes that will measure the energy-efficiency and age-friendliness of homes to enable them to be truly sustainable.
- Developing and delivering key actions identified under the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy, particularly in relation to expansion of community-based care to bring it closer to home, aimed at keeping older people healthy and independent for longer.
- Promoting the use of Support Coordination Services to ensure that a collective approach to the provision of services at local level. This will include mapping and signposting of all local services such as home supports, meals on wheels, transport, befriending, health and wellbeing services, training and education, and technology supports.
- Utilising the expanded Community Intervention Team and Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy Services to prevent unnecessary hospital admission, promote hospital avoidance and facilitate early discharge of patients to their home with the appropriate range of supports.
- Developing a statutory scheme and system of regulation for Home Support Services with clear rules in relation to services for which people are eligible and that will improve access to the services people need. Consider how home supports in supported housing models could be incorporated into the scheme.
- Evaluating the Warmth and Wellbeing Scheme currently being piloted by Department of Health Healthy Ireland Initiative, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, the Sustainable Energy Authority and the HSE with a view to expansion.
- Reviewing the housing allocation model to support the development of any specific future housing schemes for older people and ensure that a partnership approach is adopted between the HSE and the relevant local authority to identify the most suitable residents.
The Government is committed to establishing within weeks an Interdepartmental/agency Implementation Group led by an independent chair that would monitor progress and report directly to both Minister English and Daly.
