Older People

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The HSE provides a wide range of services for older people, including in-patient, acute services, step down and convalescent care, day services, rehabilitation, community services, home care and home helps. To enquire about or access these services contact your GP, or ask at your Local Health Centre to speak to the Public Health Nurse.

The HSE also pays a subvention, or a subsidy, toward the cost of a private nursing home beds. The subvention is designed to help with nursing homes costs and is subject to a means test, and a dependency test - meaning how much care the person needs.

The Minister for Health and Children has announced plans for a significant change in how nursing home care is provided and paid for. From January 1, 2008. The current subvention and public nursing home schemes will be replaced by A Fair Deal - The Nursing Home Care Support Scheme. This scheme ensures that everyone who enters a nursing home, public or private, pays a fair portion of their income as a contribution towards the cost of their care.

A national needs assessment was carried out in 2006 (Residential Care for Older People - Needs Assessment), which was updated in the Prospectus Report in 2008, which identified and prioritised the areas of greatest deficit and developed a programme of additional and replacement long stay residential beds. The need to act on a Needs Assessment on Residential Care for Older People is identified in both the National Development Plan and Programme for Government. In order to meet this need, an investment of a minimum of €100 million per annum for the next number of years was agreed by HSE Management.

Link to HSE press release on Fair Deal Bill publication
Link to DoHC Nursing Homes Support Scheme Bill 2008 (Fair Deal) documents

Click here to link to Older People Services within the HSE
Click here to link to the Expert Advisory Group responsible for Older People
Click here for HSE Publications on Older People