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CARMEL GEOGHEGAN watched her father receive acute palliative care as he battled cancer for his last two weeks.
Little did Carmel know that, years later, her mother’s late dementia diagnosis would change her own life forever, leading to a life of care and compassion for those with life-limiting illnesses.
Carmel, who is from Galway, detailed the horrific state the Irish care industry is in and how carers still struggle with the Home Help hours they receive.
Her mother Angela passed away in 2014 and both she and Carmel fought tooth and nail for every bit of support they could get.
Outlook
But now, in 2016, Carmel believes the outlook for carers and their loved ones is bleaker than ever and that the prospect of dying with dignity may as well be a pipe-dream set aside for the wealthy and privileged few.
Ireland’s austerity Budgets continuously cut Home Help hours in a bid to balance the nation’s books.
The respite home care grant was also reduced although HSE bosses said this year they will not be cutting the amount of Home Help hours.
According to the Disability Federation of Ireland, the budget for disability health services was reduced by €159.4 million between 2008 and 2015.
Home Help
Home Help hours, carer’s allowance and disability grants all made up part of the near €160 million.
They now want Government to invest €112 million in Budget 2017.
Palliative Care Week runs from 3 to 8 of October and was launched to remind people they have options if and when their loved ones develop a life-limiting condition.
Carmel Geoghegan is just one of many who feel the life-changing benefits of caring for those who need help.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, she said: “I suppose I got into it when mam got her late diagnosis. My father had died years previously from cancer and he himself got acute palliative care.
Palliative care is enabling people to have a better quality of life with their life-limiting diseases. It enables you to have a better quality of life.
“Mam had to come live with me. I enabled her to live a relatively independent life even though she was living with me.
“I enabled her to have her own autonomy. She could make choices for herself but, as her disease progressively got worse, she wasn’t able to do the things she used to.”
The landscape of care has changed dramatically in the past two years, according to Carmel.
Cuts
She added: “The home care package, that’s part of the palliative care. It’s giving people the help they need to stay at home, which is where they want to live. They may not be able to do it for themselves but that’s where the few hours here and there come in.
“It was cut and cut and cut in all the budgets. We had to fight for everything we got. But now it’s worse. Home care is being cut. People can’t live at home any longer and that’s why they’re put into nursing homes which cost more money.
They’re wasting so much money it’s crazy. If they gave a little extra help at home and gave some kind of support, that would be ideal. At the moment it’s just horrendous out there.
The HSE has leant its support to the awareness week, which is being organised by the All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC).
That group is comprised of a number of health agencies and universities north and south of the border.
HSE National Lead for Palliative Care, Sheilagh Reaper-Reynolds encouraged the public to take the opportunity to find out more and to talk about palliative care within families and also with health professionals.
She said: “Through our national clinical programme for palliative care and by supporting initiatives such as Palliative Care Week, our aim is to alleviate fears and anxieties surrounding palliative care services. This will help ensure that people with life-limiting conditions and their families can easily access the type of palliative care services that best meet their needs.”
Advice
Carmel described how daunting it is when you start out caring for someone.
But she believes it is through the love and compassion you have for them which makes it seem like second nature.
She said: “If somebody came to me now, I’d sit them and down and tell them it’s the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do. It’s changed my whole life, my whole outlook on life.
“The one good piece of advice is this; don’t be terrified. What you’re doing is the best thing you can do for a loved one. You’re giving them what they really want.
Because once they are put into a nursing home, they just fade away. They lose their personality.
“When we were younger, we looked after older neighbours, running in and out. Everyone died at home years ago, not in hospital. We have to go back to that. We have such an ageing population. How are we going to afford it?
“It’s terrifying. it’s madness. You never think you’ll get old until you do.”
Publically focused information about palliative care and Palliative Care Week is available at www.thepalliativehub.com where a new section for health and social care professionals has been added.
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His self pitying performance, admittedly under severe pressure, has done him no favours.
Agreed, but on the other side, i don’t believe Gerrie Nel’s badgering of the witness done the state any favours
did anybody ever wonder why intruders would break into your house through a bathroom window then lock themselves in !
By no means am I defending him, but Crime in South Africa is so common place that most South Africans live in constant fear. Reeva & Oscar are also famous, so I’m sure they were also always on the look out for people wanting stork them, maybe steal from them. If thief broke in through a bathroom window, who knows what they will do!
Does this give him the excuse to kill somebody……
Not at all, but if you go research the crime statistics in South Africa, you will find that families are being murdered for a couple of possessions.
@stanley. Would the people who have private security in their neighbourhood live in constant fear or just the middle classes
Yes!! Everybody does…… Maybe not Jacob Zuma
Yes m’lady
Class :)
Thits incorrict m’lady
Gizmo you’re getting awful abuse in the Justin bieber story. If u need back up you know where I am buddy. We could take them!!
I’ll have a look Saul!
He’s being shown up for what he truly is a control freak with a temper (roid rage? Found lots of steroids in his place )had access to a gun and a history of incidents with guns and the most ridiculous story which doesn’t add up or make any sense.He murdered his girlfriend and is nothing more than a deranged little coward who is turning this trial into a farce with his theatrics and crocodile tears.
Does anyone actually believe his bullshit story? If so why?
Thank god, listening to him was painful.
Change the channel then, or go do something constructive
It’s on the radio in work you moron.
Try a different station……. One with lovely soft music to calm yourself down…… It sounds like you need it
How come we’re allowed to comment on the trial all of a sudden?
It’s trial by media. We have a role to play. I say murder in the first, my lady
It was the gun’s fault it pulled on his finger……
Im not saying he didn’t do it but innocent/guilty proven etc..
Google PTSD there.. its not exclusive to people who are coming back from warzones..
“The relentless Gerrie Nel – also known as the Pitbull”
Every other reference I’ve heard/read has been he’s known as the “Bulldog”………..
Whatever…
just lock him up already…he’s as guilty as sin…
This is a man who in spite of his disability likes to be in control and cannot allow love to get in the way as it shows up a weakness in his shield. It is a pity that his girlfriend could not recognise this.
In spite of his disability likes to be in control?? What are you trying to say here. This has nothing to do with a disability
Whatsda Pistorious (that’s the new way I answer the phone to my buddies) it could catch on!!
you don’t have many ‘buddies’ i take it.
Cowboy
I’m absolutely stunned when I look at the comment in articles related to this trial. Most of the comments are from people who have already decided he was guilty. The trial is nothing more than paper work to these people.
I don’t know whether he is guilty or not, but this certainly isn’t as clear cut as some people are trying to make out.
totally agree, and if it was her that shot him those same people would be calling for her release immediately.
I think what happened was ~ they were having an enormous row… she tried to get away from him because he is a proven lunatic!! She wouldn’t come out of the bathroom and he blasted shots through the door thinking she was at the toilet and she wasnt she was behind the door and he killed her!!
Erm even is she was sitting on the toilet the shots would have hit her(in the head imo)or at least the ricochet would. The toilet cubicle is tiny btw.
Have you seen the layout of the bathroom??????
Hasnt a leg to stand on in my view
so you haven’t heard that ,,,ahem, joke since last February ?
Why would she lock the bathroom door in the middle of the night when it was just herself and her boyfriend in the house??
A valentines card????
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Please dont shoot
Its me on the loo
I think I must be the only person in the world following this trial that has a certain amount of empathy for Oscar Pistorius.
In saying that, I don’t believe his version of events as I fully believe he knew it was Reeva Steenkamp that was in the bathroom, but at the same time I don’t think it was a pre-meditated, ruthless, cold-blooded murder as the prosecution are attempting to make it out to be.
This is my humble opinion of how I think events unfolded …
I believe they were a couple very much in love and had a very passionate relationship. And with a passionate relationship comes very intense and explosive rows. I think it started off as a verbal arguement that quickly gathered momentum. It was getting very heated and both were relentless and everyone knows that there’s no-one better at pressing your buttons than your very own partner. I think he snapped and grabbed his gun – not ever intending to use it – but just wanted to scare her. She then ran into the bathroom away from him – but at the same time not believing he’d ever fire at her either. But as the row raged on through the door, in a split-second of pure madness and frustration with her he found himself pulling on the trigger. I believe he was instantly horrified and distraught at what he had just done.
He then panicked and lied about what happened and has been continuing that lie ever since. He has now found himself in a situation he can’t get out of.
I think all the grief and emotion he showed on the stand is genuine because he did truely love her and is still in disbelief at what he did.
While I do feel sorry for him because I feel he accidently lost the woman he loves by his own hand, he does absolutely deserve to be punished for his crime, because no matter how it happened, the girl is dead because of him.
He should have told the truth from the start and pleaded manslaughter.
In any case, the whole chain of events is such a sad tragedy for all involved.
Would anyone else agree with that possible scenario … or not?
Totally agree!
Agree 100% but I don’t have any empathy for him, I understand your other half can push your buttons like no one else and in a fit of rage you can loose the head i understand that. But it takes a fair bit of presence of mind to go pick up a gun & open fire it don’t care how passionate your relationship is
Yes I agree with that. I accept that being totally wound up in the midst of a blazing row is no excuse for pulling a gun on some-one – let alone use it which is why he deserves to be tried and punished for it. But I imagine that it is a very fine line that you step over to reach that presence of mind and I believe in his case it was only for a very brief split second.
I also think when you are around firearms as much as he is and you become very comfortable holding them and using them at firing ranges etc – you lose perspective of how lethal they are and lose the sense of danger surrounding them. And I feel his attitude to holding such a powerful weapon was just way too laid-back with devastating results.
Could they not use a lie detector test and the trial would be over in one day.How can you convict him without reasonable doubt when only 2 people are direct witness and only one survives.
Pristorious has NOT a leg to stand on!
and again,,,,,so you haven’t heard that ,,,ahem, joke since last February ?
This particular judge will charge him with murder, I’ve no doubt about that.
have your say