Irish charity, Friends of the Elderly, has launched a petition calling on the Minister for Health to introduce Health Information and Quality Authority standards to cover the home care sector.In a statement, the organisation said HIQA regulation was “the only way that our elderly can be protected.” According to the charity, “the Irish home care sector is completely unregulated.”
Referring to the recent RTÉ Primetime investigation on the issue, Friends of the Elderly spokesman, Dermot Kirwan said, “The abuses highlighted by the programme shocked us all, but they are an inevitable consequence when the HSE doesn’t even know how many home care companies are operating in Ireland.”
The programme showed that “any individual can set up a company and start caring for the elderly in their homes without any registration, any training or any Garda checks.”
“Unregulated, unregistered and unsupervised, the private home care sector is an accident waiting to happen,” Friends of the Elderly warned. “Caring for the elderly in their home is the most sensitive and personal of contractual relationships.”
“We are talking about giving the most personal of services to the most vulnerable people in our society, in the privacy of their homes,” the charity added, highlighting that, “Abuses have been reported” in this area.
Friends of the Elderly is seeking 10,000 signatures in support of their petition, which is being promoted online at www.friendsoftheelderly.ie.
Currently, the charity provides a lifeline to 360 old people in the Dublin area.
The charity has 400 volunteers who visit these ‘friends’ and alleviate their loneliness and isolation by providing friendship, social contact and opportunities for participating in community activities.
The average age of charity’s elderly is 76 years with women out numbering men by three to one.
SIC: CIN/IE
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