A drop-in nightcare service should be developed for vulnerable older people living alone, one Limerick man has proposed. John Walsh, former chair of Ballyhoura Development, maintains that overnight accommodation for older people afraid to stay in their own homes should be developed in conjunction with the HSE.
A drop-in nightcare service should be developed for vulnerable older people living alone, one Limerick man has proposed.
John Walsh, former chair of Ballyhoura Development, maintains that overnight accommodation for older people afraid to stay in their own homes should be developed in conjunction with the HSE.
“Daycare has been a massive success; this would mirror that idea at night,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal. “The idea came to me when I heard about an old man who had been broken into and was so frightened that he paid to stay in a bed and breakfast every night for six months.”
“When people hear about that man in Waterford who was killed and the 93-year-old man in Kilfinnan who fired shots at intruders, they are really afraid and nervous in their own homes,” he continued.
“They are sleeping with guns under the bed, hurleys and sticks beside them. It’s a tragedy to have people living that kind of life in their old age.”
“I know people who are very much afraid, they lock themselves in from four in the evening on dark winter nights until 10 the following morning. It’s a pity that they have to live that way,” said Walsh.
“There are plenty of convents idle, dormitories and old boarding schools that are not being fully utilised. The health board would have to get involved but it could be a social enterprise that would provide a service to vulnerable people.”
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