The deaths of three older men have shown that elderly people are particularly at risk from the cold – both inside and outside the home, writes RONAN McGREEVY
THE DEATHS of Peter Irwin and Tom Connolly in Co Mayo and Donal O’Connell in Co Cork are a stark reminder of the dangers that cold weather presents for elderly people. Mr Irwin died from head injuries sustained when he slipped on an icy patch, while Mr O’Connell was a victim of suspected hypothermia after he fell in a field and Mr Connolly was found on a footpath close to his house.
Elderly people are not the only ones who are vulnerable in this cold spell, but they are particularly at risk, both inside and outside the home.
The dangers range from trips and falls, which can be particularly serious for elderly people, to respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular arrest, and the very real risk of hypothermia.
Research has shown that people aged over 65 are seven times more likely to be hospitalised than those between 18 and 44 during cold weather.
For poorer pensioners, the chances of mortality are 2.5 times those of their better-off peers.
In January, Dublin pensioner James Cullen (78) fell on his sitting room floor and died of hypothermia during the cold spell at the start of the year. The backdoor of his house was ajar.
Such a long spell of cold weather in November and early December is unprecedented as is two such protracted cold snaps in the one year.
According to Eamon Timmons of Age Action, being aware of the vulnerability of old people in cold weather is a lesson that Irish society learned during previous spells of bad weather.
People are now actively looking around their communities to see what help elderly people might need.
“The general public can be an incredible force if you mobilise them,” he says. “It is clear that the HSE does not have the resources to deal with every case.”
Timmins says the appeal Age Action made when the cold snap first set in elicited 600 calls, with four times as many potential volunteers as those seeking help calling the helpline.
He stressed that elderly people can be especially vulnerable when they are going outside to get coal or briquettes for the fire.
Alone chief executive Seán Moynihan says demands on its services become acute about four or five days into a cold spell when pensioners start to run out of money, fuel or food.
Moynihan cited the example of an elderly man who earlier this year moved into Alone’s social housing from a home that had no central heating or electricity.
“We’ve had three or four applications from people living in houses that are uninhabitable. Your house can be a trap as you get older,” he warns.
“If you are on the basic pension and there is something wrong with your house – if you need to change the electrics and rewire the house and it costs you several thousands – it is going to take you a while to save that up on €200 a week.”
Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan has confirmed that the reconnection fees charged by the ESB and Bord Gáis would be halved from December 22nd.
It currently costs €197 to reconnect electricity and €140 to reconnect gas. Mr Ryan also stressed that prohibitions on disconnecting elderly people during winter months would remain in place.
Prof Desmond O’Neill, a consultant geriatrician at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Tallaght, says fuel poverty remains a very real issue during winter months.
Research by Dr Helen McAvoy of the Institute of Public Health (IPH) found that one household in five in the Republic suffers from fuel poverty, which is defined as spending more than 10 per cent of one’s household income on keeping warm.
“I would be concerned that the cold spell would distract us from the more generic fact that older people are very much caught in the fuel poverty thing that has very definite health consequences,” says O’Neill.
O’Neill came across the first case of hypothermia he has seen for 15 years last week. The man, who tripped and fell in his garden, had a body temperature of 28.9 degrees, the norm being 37.1. Remarkably he survived.
“The cold weather is a real threat for old people, but it does not always extend into a greater workload for somebody like me,” he says.
“Elderly people are at risk of hypothermia and loneliness. In terms of getting their food and their medication, there are very significant threats.
“The threats are often not the threats that end up quickly at the door of the general hospital, but there are major concerns about people being cut off.”
Concern too has been expressed about the plight of homeless people in the cold weather. The Homeless Agency has been attempting to ensure that every homeless person has a bed for the night while the cold spell lasts.
