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IT’S THE MID-1950s, you are young, with your whole life ahead of you, marrying your sweetheart. You both pledge to be together in sickness and in health for as long as you both shall live.
It never even enters your head that when you get older, your need for services will separate you and dash your hopes of spending your later years living in the care of each other.
This is exactly what has happened to Michael and Kathleen Devereaux, aged 90 and 85 respectively, married for 63 years.
Speaking earlier this week on RTE’s Liveline, Michael and Kathleen told the story of how they had both applied for Fair Deal but only Michael had fulfilled the criteria. Kathleen had been deemed capable of continuing to live independently, leaving her to live at home alone for the first time at 85 years old.
Plea for humanity
Over the last few days, both the Minister for Health and the Taoiseach have condemned this mistake of bureaucracy and it looks like Michael and Kathleen will be reunited. This is good news. They deserve to be together. But to achieve this response, they had to take to the national airwaves to make an emotional plea for humanity.
People who are older or who have disabilities don’t just need care, they need compassion. In fact, compassion can reduce their need for care. Michael and Kathleen will have a far better quality, and maybe even quantity, of life together than they would apart.
The HSE is a large bureaucracy. But it is made up of people, capable of compassion, who if given some discretion, can make the right decision ̶ one which makes people’s lives better rather than just keeping them safe. There’s a difference between being looked after and being safe. We need a far greater emphasis on kindness and compassion in our policies.
Look after each other at home
Greater diversity in the menu of supports available for older people and people with disabilities is required. The Fair Deal scheme for nursing homes is a statutory scheme, so it gets priority, but it is possible that people like Michael and Kathleen might be able to look after each other at home with the required support and for similar cost. It will be interesting to see the proposals for a new statutory home care scheme expected to be published for consultation by the new Minister for Older People, Jim Daly TD in the coming days.
The trouble is, Michael and Kathleen aren’t alone. Throughout the country, decisions are being made for financial or administrative reasons which negatively affect people’s natural supports, their relationships and their families.
Loneliness has a cost which needs to be recognised by decision-makers. A report published last year by the Institute of Public Health, Loneliness and ageing: Ireland, North and South found that loneliness amongst older people may be linked to depression and anxiety, increased stress, heightened risk of heart disease and stroke, and cognitive decline.
The impact on relationships
These are big situations which are similar to the one the Devereaux family found itself in, but there are other smaller decisions taken every day which have a big impact on families. Something small like making a decision to get a person with a disability a hospital bed at home, to make it easier to administer personal care, means the double bed the person shares with their partner has to go. Little consideration is given to how decisions about delivering care impact on relationships.
Ultimately, it is from relationships, love and compassion that we most derive our quality of life. For a person with substantial care needs, the support of strong, personal and family relationships can help to overcome the indignities of care and give a sense of value by boosting self-esteem and self-worth.
Health and social care policy needs to preserve and nurture these relationships in people’s lives. People will be happier. Their quality of life will be better and the cost of supporting them will almost certainly be lower.
Sonya Felton is Head of Public Affairs and Advocacy with the Rehab Group which provided nearly 198,000 hours of home support to people in their homes and communities in 2016.
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Remember folks. Pat gallagher didnt vote two days ago on whether to release the letter from the ecb to Brian lenihan which ff, fg, labour and the esb have been trying to keep from us since 2010. When that letter is finally released in the coming days/weeks watch them all go “independent” ff/fg/labour
Yes trevor sinn fein were the only party to vote for the release of the letter. Fg and labour voted against. Wonder if rte reported that.
With good reason. Sensitive financial information that could undermine our recovery or cause instability in our dealings with the markets or the ECB.
You are hardly going to trust a person you have to work with if private correspondence is published.
Ah seanie i do enjoy your posts. What is the official ff line on this letter? The cope didnt vote and the ombudsman ruled it should be published.
Get back in your box Seanie…FF Fluffer
I’m from Donegal and if Gallagher says his main priorities are ‘to bring jobs to the northwest’ then I don’t see the point in his last 13 years work or do I see the point in his highly paid position even being available.
If I had a vote tomorrow on being able to leave the eu, I’d be voting to leave it.
The last thing we need in Europe at the moment is people from Fianna Fail ‘representing’ us. Hopefully the people in the Midlands-North West region will be wise enough to not vote for these two.
Do we want FG, Labour, SF or the Looney left representing us?
There may be a variance in political rhetoric while they’re rifling through our pockets, but they’re all much the same.
What we have is a political deficit that dwarfs our fiscal deficit.
We need people like Thomas Byrne standing up for Ireland in Brussels.
Thomas has wonderful experience from his time in the Seanad and Pat knows the workings of the EU.
Pity they’re both FF rats.
Tell me Seanie, is Thomas Byrne in favour of the property tax and water charges? Yes or no?
Thomas was a TD in the 2007/11 regime that betrayed our freedom to the Nazi EU. Thomas stands for venture capitalism and is a “money man” has no interest in the ordinary man and the damage caused by the FF regime and longs for the halsyon days of greed and capitalist pillage to return.
As someone from the constituency i have no idea what pat the cope gallagher ever done for that area. He is never in the media for having done or said anything. As for the other muppet, the people gave him their answer in 2011. If im in the country my vote will go to matt carthy.
Another spiv like Brian Crowley below in Cork, who only pops up oozing insincerity at voting time. Smallest FF logo ever, into the bargain.
@Amphroaí My dear fellow when you blossomed onto this forum a number of weeks ago – it was your effervescent use of the queens English which was so refreshing, scintillating and incandescent – it is such a shame to see you delve into the crassness of the tongue of the ordinary peasants.. Is there not a more rhythmic way to describe the delinquent character of the ruling class than ‘spiv’?
Perhaps the heroics of the Irish team have rendered your vocabulary into to a more ‘rustic’ overture. You of course subscribe to the notion that the traditional allocation of executive responsibilities has always been so determined as to liberate the ministerial incumbent from the administrative minutiae by devolving the managerial functions to those whose experience and qualifications have better formed them for the performance of such humble offices, thereby releasing their political overlords for the more onerous duties and profound deliberations which are the inevitable concomitant of their exalted position?
On reflection, my dear fellow interlocutors, you are most assuredly correct. I can only crave your collective pardons for my tardy, untimely, and gradual yet interminable descent into crass generalities, truncated and incisive, yet trivial and inelegant, and undertake forthwith to apply a greater burden of thought and alacrity to my wordy ejaculations herein than I have been in the habit of imparting upon such outpourings in the recent past.
I thank you for your candour, sir.
Good to see service resumed old boy… i pray those ‘wordy ejaculations’ are never directed against my humble self. Carry on.
Indeed, I have been perhaps overly liberal in my enjoyment of the pleasures of Bacchus in the last single digit measure of quarterly portions to cycles of the moon. I have been of late enjoying the triple banquet of bloodsport that has been presented for my delectation by the onset of local elections, Six Nations rugby football tournaments and the wedding of my sister.
I fear I am still in the early stages of recovery from the latter two, while relishing the inevitable unfolding of the former.
Never, dear sir. I reserve my lengthy salvos for those who deserve them.
Deadly :-)))))
What the people of Midlands-North West region want to hear from Pat ‘ The Cope’ Gallagher and Thomas Byrne is where do they stand on the Property/Bondholder Tax and on water charges. During the Meath bye-election Byrne was asked about the property tax and gave a vague answer. His refusal to condemn property tax and Fianna Fáil’s refusal to give a commitment to scrap it cost Byrne that election. The people want to hear it loud and clear from Fianna Fáil now, no if’s, no buts, no maybe – are you in favour of property tax and water charges?
Pat the dope Gallagher ,is that what they said or was that the voters
Pat Gallagher isn’t as catchy I suppose.
It came from Co-Op the family had the co-Op there years ago. It was used to differentiate between Gallagher families
So he’s really Pat “co op” Gallagher!!
They probably can’t up with the nickname themselves. I doubt they care but I refuse to humour them by using it.
Genuine question here, is he allowed to put his Nickname on the ballot paper? I would hope not
More like “Can’t Cope” , except when it comes to claiming salary , and expenses!
After everything that has gone before, there has to be something inherently wrong with someone who votes for FF.
Dumb and Dumber
Yawn.
FF. How the mighty have fallen You’d wonder whether some of their new recruits were dropping leaflets in or casing the joint
I don’t think anyone will be breaking in to your council house, Susanna. Unless ur shinner buddies are in the area.
Huh?
Seanie, with the greatest respect in the world, many Fianna Fail supporters down through the years lived in local authority housing and many still do, that was where the core support of the party was based for many years, slightly facetious comment
And seanies assumptions are based on ?
The Cope is off to a good start.
140 jobs lost in Gweedore, on his doorstep.
PS “Cope” is pronounced to rhyme with “Dope”
Starters orders. And off they go.
Fianna Fáil destroyed Ireland economically!
Fianna Fáil gave “cover” to many dishonest politicians who deceived the Irish Electorate election after election since the foundation of the Irish State!
” I won the money at the horses”!
Paddy the plasterer bought my house!
Remember Haughty, Lawlor, Callely to name but a few!
Michael Martin set up the HSE which has cost the country Billions of Euro!
Are…..tossers
Not really the newest.
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