Elderly left without support as carer shortage hits rural Mid Ulster

Chair of Mid Ulster District Council, Councillor Frances Burton (DUP), has revealed she is having sleepless nights over the plight of three elderly residents she knows well who are in desperate need of home care.

The Clogher Valley DEA representative made the comments at the Development Committee meeting of Mid Ulster District Council on December 3, where she argued that recent grant funding from the Department for Communities (DfC) should, at least in part, be used to train new home help staff to address what she described as an acute shortage of domiciliary carers.

The DfC funding, totalling £100,643.98, is to be allocated to the Mid Ulster Labour Market Partnership as an additional funding boost.

Raising the issue during the meeting, Councillor Burton said:

“I had spoken to some of the staff through the week to do with the Labour Market Partnership.

“You know the way we had training for people when there was a dearth of lorry drivers, and [now] we have an absolute dearth in Mid Ulster for carers, especially in the rural areas.

“Is there any way that we could look at that as part of future schemes?”

She told councillors that while training had previously been provided for caring roles, it had not addressed the current crisis in domiciliary care.

“Apparently, a number of years ago there had been [people trained up in] a caring role, but it seems to be an awful lot of those went into care homes, which is exactly where we want to keep people out of.

“So, I don’t know whether there’s any way that that could be looked at, about trying to keep people in their own homes, if there was some way of training up younger people.”

Councillor Burton said the situation was particularly acute in rural areas, where many carers are from an older generation and are now retiring or leaving the profession due to ill health.

“It seems to be that in rural areas a lot of the carers are from the older generation, and a lot of them are retiring and just giving up.

“Some of them have actually had to give up recently because of ill health themselves.”

She went on to describe the circumstances of three elderly individuals known personally to her.

“I have one 92-year-old man, I have a lady who’s 97, and an 87-year-old who is not allowed out of her seat, because if she went to make a cup of tea, with the boiling water there would be a real fear of her getting scalded, because she can’t physically stand on her own without this wee Zimmer, and obviously she has to hold on to it.

“So, how does she work with a kettle?”

Councillor Burton criticised what she described as a lack of empathy in the current system.

“And there just is no empathy there at the minute for people like that.

“They’re just told ‘Your care is finishing on a certain date, and it’s one date next week’.”

She said the situation had personally affected her.

“I’ve actually had sleepless nights over these three people, because I know them really well.

“And it’s just like if you’re 92, or 95 and a half, or 97, and you’re not entitled to care, then when on earth would you ever be entitled to it?”

Councillor Burton also expressed frustration at her dealings with the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

“So, I don’t know whether that’s something that the Council can look at, but I’ve been around the block where the [Southern HSC] Trust is concerned, and it’s all about policy and it’s all about procedure, and there’s somebody that’s on the phone that doesn’t want you to talk to anybody.

“You have to go through this procedure to try and even represent the people, and it just is the most frustrating torture to go through.”

She added that families were repeatedly seeking updates but struggling to get answers.

“So, for those families who are on with us, day, in day out, any word? Is there any update? You just can’t get to the right person to find out if there is any hope of them being reallocated care.”

Referring to suggestions that families might take the issue to the media, she said:

“Some of them had said they were going to go to the Nolan Show and I thought, well, if you go to the Nolan Show, I have to make sure I’ve tried everything myself as well.”

Responding to the concerns, Assistant Director of Economy, Tourism and Strategic Programmes, Fiona McKeown, acknowledged the scale of the issue.

“In relation to the carers issue, it’s a widespread problem, not just in Mid Ulster but beyond.

“So, there’s nothing that we will be able to do in the current financial year with the additional funding, because [it has] to be delivered really quickly by the end of the financial year.

“But I’ll take it away and speak to the team, and see if there’s anything we can do in future years in relation to that.”