Press release
Minister for Health welcomes Sláintecare Support for Positive Ageing Week
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, has welcomed Positive Ageing Week 2021. This year's theme is focused on Reconnecting Communities by Reframing Ageing.
Sláintecare is shifting narratives around ageing, and one of the main objectives of Sláintecare is to enable people to age well at home or in their own communities.
Minister Donnelly said:
"Our population is ageing, and we must transform our health services to support older people to live as independently in their own homes and community, for as long as possible. The goal of Sláintecare is that health and social care services will be built around the need of the people who will be able to live longer healthier lives in their own homes and communities.
"Through the Sláintecare Integration fund we have funded a number of projects around the country which are supporting older people to enjoy a better older age at home and providing integrated care leading to early interventions, hospital avoidance, self-management and education.
"Sláintecare considers age-specific organisations as being central to the reform agenda, and the Integrated Care Programme for Older People has been designed to focus on improving the management of older people’s services.
"Over the next three years, Sláintecare will take a focus on Enhancing Community Care, through chronic disease management and older person’s integrated care.
"By focusing on prevention, the aim is to shift care away from acute hospitals into the community and closer to people’s homes."
Earlier this year, Sláintecare, with Age Friendly Ireland launched The Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme. The programme ensures that older people in our communities have the right supports available to them to ensure they can age well at home and out of hospital.
Nine Healthy Age Coordinators have been employed, reaching up to 4,500 homes across nine Local Authority areas over two years. The Coordinators will support older people and their families to navigate the services by proactively linking them to the appropriate supports and services.
By providing supports for older people in their community, older people are supported to remain safer and healthier in their own homes for as long as possible.
This is a key enabler of Sláintecare.