Mayo Minister launches rollout of the healthy age-friendly homes programme

Minister Alan Dillon TD is delighted to launch the national rollout of the Healthy Age Friendly Homes programme alongside Minister for Mental Health and Older People Mary Butler TD.

This innovative programme is set to bring significant benefits to help older people live healthier and happier lives in their own homes for longer.

“The Healthy Age Friendly Homes programme, backed by €5.2 million in annual recurring funding, has expanded from nine pilot sites to all 31 local authorities nationwide.

This expansion puts significant local level support in place for older people in their communities across every local authority area, including Mayo County Council,” said Minister Dillon.

“With over 4,600 home visits and more than 9,000 supports provided between May 2021 and December 2023, the national rollout of the programme is set to support up to 10,500 older people per year.

This is a significant step towards positive ageing,” he added.

“The World Health Organization recognises this programme as a best practice example for the provision of person-centred integrated care for older people.

This recognition underscores the effectiveness of our approach,” Minister Dillon noted.

“This programme is unique in its cross-sectoral nature, involving key partners such as the Department of Health, Health Service Executive (HSE), Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Age Friendly Ireland, and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI).

This collaboration ensures a comprehensive support system for our older citizens,” he explained.

“The Healthy Age Friendly Homes programme provides a rounded model of care that supports older people to remain in their own homes, where possible, to avoid hospital admission and early or unnecessary admission to residential care.

This is a testament to Governments commitment to dignified and independent living for older people,” Minister Dillon emphasised.

“Our Local Coordinators, based in each local authority, work closely with older people to design a personalised action plan.

This plan includes interventions such as access to primary care, public health nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, meals on wheels, transportation, befriending services, housing adaptation grants, rightsizing, home energy retrofits, and assistive technologies,” he said.

“The evaluation of the pilot programme conducted by Maynooth University demonstrated improvements in measurements of older peoples’ self-reported health status, quality of life, loneliness, social supports, self-efficacy, and functional ability.

These improvements highlight the positive impact of this programme,” Minister Dillon pointed out.

“The success of the programme is due to the active collaboration between agencies including the Department of Health; Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage; the HSE; and Local Authorities.

Minister Dillon concluded, “Healthy Age Friendly Homes has great potential to be a major component in the broader strategy to prepare society for the projected increase in the older demographic.

I commend Age Friendly Ireland Shared Service for hosting this innovative programme, and all 31 Local Authorities for their critical participation in the delivery of this.”

If you’d like to find out more about this programme in Mayo, please email agefriendlymayo@mayococo.ie.