Madam, - The Tánaiste's recent pronouncement on the care of older people highlights serious issues for us all. But her words ring hollow when one considers that the problems she mentioned have been known for years, yet the Government of which she is a member has responded by cutting community and long-term care services for older people. This response comes on top of what Kathy Sheridan, in a recent column, eloquently suggested was a system of care for older people that is "so vague, incoherent, arbitrary and outdated as to drive the most right-thinking people into a moral maze".
This system has been fashioned over the years by politicians who appear to have no real desire or ability to implement a strategic plan for the future care needs of older people. There is no legislative underpinning of services and such services that exist are thin on the ground for the minority of older people who need care. Access to them is often a matter of chance. The legislative vacuum throws up both legal and ethical dilemmas for families, social workers and other professionals, particularly in relation to older people with a cognitive impairment.
The failure of this and previous governments to provide adequate services transparently and equitably has blighted the lives of many older people and their carers. This failure denies them their basic human right to a reasonable quality of life and leaves many in appalling distress.
We do not need the Tánaiste's restatement of information and ideas already available in numerous reports written over the years. Rather, we need the Tánaiste and her Government to take these reports from the shelves, dust them down and give us some leadership and action in implementing their recommendations. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN BRENNAN, Chairperson, Special Interest Group on Ageing,
Irish Association of Social Workers, 114-116 Pearse Street, Dublin 2.