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MORE OLDER PEOPLE living in Ireland are cold and lonely because of declining public services, a new report released by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul claimed yesterday.
Loneliness is the biggest individual problem faced by older people living on their own, while the cost of fuel is one of the main stresses of the elderly in Ireland.
The SVP said that loneliness amongst older people is particularly acute in rural areas. Declining public services, such as the closure of post offices and cancellation of other local services, including transport, has led to a reduced level of human contact.
Fuel poverty
In Ireland, rural older people are twice as likely to lack central heating and the researchers in this commission heard some worrying anecdotes from the people they surveyed.
The report’s authors described how older people were forced into almost ‘siege of Leningrad’ extremes to cope with the cold.
Some older people restrict central heating to a small number of hours a day or to just one room in the house. All important electrical appliances and the bed would then be brought to this central room.
Others said they went to bed for a few hours during the day in an attempt to keep warm or else wore heavy clothes while indoors. Hot water bottles are also used throughout the day in some homes.
The researchers heard how some men and women switched off their electricity once their free units were used up and, as one said, “then we freeze”.
The report also detailed how men did not wash so they could save electricity through not heating water.
The situation has been exacerbated by older people having to live in larger houses that have been vacated by their children. Many of those surveyed said they would like to downsize their homes but were unable to find a buyer for their current property.
Hospital transport
Another major concern for older people in Ireland concerns the journey to hospital and other medical appointments.
The researchers heard numerous examples of older people obliged to make long, difficult and sometimes stressful journeys to hospitals at great personal expense. The problem was seen in both urban and rural areas.
However, there were also many reports of long waiting periods on trolleys – sometimes up to three days – when they finally reached the hospital.
Positives
The SVP found some positives from the report, which was commissioned to find out more about the experience of being an older person living in Ireland.
According to many of the respondents, growing old was seen as a positive development. The message of the ‘active, fit’ old age has been firmly embraced, the report revealed.
Older people consider themselves much more fortunate than their parents or their children’s generation
However, those surveyed called on greater advocacy work to be carried out by older people, especially around effective policies to eradicate fuel poverty and a fairer pension system, including the re-establishment of the Christmas Bonus.
During the study, “Older people – experiences and issues,” almost 600 people were interviewed in 43 different urban, provincial and rural areas by independent researchers.
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Mr Norris will be remembered as one of our greats .
A gentleman and a scholar.
Is this not odd, to rifle through documents from another time and publish through a modern prism? This reads like a scoop or as sensationalist, next week perhaps an expose on how women were appallingly treated for witchcraft?
@Osprey: No.
@Jimmy Wallace: You could just have left it as persecuted, Jimmy.
Lots of others were persecuted too.
Christianity is an equal opportunites persecutor.
@Osprey: Is it not odd that someone would wish that others be kept ignorant of history in an obvious attempt to push their opinions on how other people live their lives?
@Osprey: It’s called history
Right wing party did right wing things.
@Chris O’Brien: Who fox a R Ses chris. Do you…
@Chris O’Brien: It might tell us a lot about about the operation of this state.
Both FF and FG were in power during those years, with Labour in the mix too.
And yet the state’s stance on this remained the same – to try to fight to maintain its laws on persecuting the homosexual communities.
How much is any “policy” down to the government of the day, or to the permanent government of the civil service, from which it get its advice and told what it can and cannot do?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: It was a FF Minister that got rid of this law, a FG government that facilitated marriage equality and repeal of the 8th amendment but don’t let mere facts get in the way of your politically motivated rant.
@Kilkenny Proud: it was an FG and FF governments that wouldn’t legalise the sale of condoms to everyone one which would have been a huge help to dealing with HIV and it was a FG government which brought in the 8th amendment. The FF minister brought in the legalisation of homosexuality because of over a decade of fighting it through the courts in Ireland the EU and then the international court and only then after losing it they legalised it
@Kilkenny Proud: And who brought in or maintained these oppressive laws in the first place, Kilkenny Proud?
The reason these laws were repealed was because they were in breach of European human rights legislation, not that FF or FG actually wanted them repealed.
Or did you not even read this article?
So AIDS was a case against settling down and getting married? Only in Ireland
Christian fundamentalists is all ffg were..never a mention during revisionism of our recent history the influence politicians had over the people..I’d imagine if SF were in powers at the time the media would be revisiting stories such as these to showcase how backwards the country was under Them and how ffg are so progressive
@Shane Doyle: right, SF before they jumped into the bandwagon in last 10 years they were marching with rainbow flegs in Belfast
@Jimmy Wallace: 800 years of cultural control will do that to a peasant mind. It’s why we’re world leaders in begrudgery today.
Name them
What does this man want to achieve by bringing this case? What benefit does anyone get other than the lawyers and their cash.
The state are sh*tes
@lastfewchocices: Which comes first, the chicken or the egg.
Left hand shakes the right hand.
Make of that as you will.
have your say