Home help service

Information

The Health Service Executive (HSE) in Ireland may provide home help services to people who need them.

Home help services are provided in order to assist people to remain in their own home and to avoid going in to long-term care. However, your Local Health Office is not legally obliged to provide these services. In practice, the HSE either provides the home help service directly or make arrangements with voluntary organisations to provide them.

The service is generally free to medical card holders and is always free to people who have contracted Hepatitis C directly or indirectly from the use of Human Immunoglobulin-Anti-D or from the receipt within Ireland of another blood product or a blood transfusion and who have a Health Amendment Act Card. Other people may be asked to make a contribution to the cost of the service.

The HSE is not limited in the categories of people they can assist at home. However, the priorities are normally to provide a service to people with Hepatitis C who have Health Amendment Act Cards, older people, families with small children where the mother is dead or seriously ill and people with disabilities.

Home helps usually assist people with normal household tasks although they may also help with personal care. If you get a home help, you may have to make a contribution towards the cost, even if you hold a medical card. In some cases, you may have to pay all the costs involved. If you are in a position to pay the costs involved, you can ask the Health Service Executive (HSE) for an arrangement whereby the HSE has all the responsibilities of the employer while you pay the costs.

There are not enough people available to provide home help services to people who are assessed as being in need of the service. In some areas, you may be asked to identify a person who may be able to provide the service. If that person is considered suitable by the HSE, then he/she may be offered the job.

Some Local Health Offices also provide a limited home help respite care service for carers.

Rules

The home help is expected to provide a set number of hours assistance each day or each week. The precise arrangements can usually be agreed between you and the Health Service Executive (HSE). The sort of work that a home help is normally required to do includes light cleaning, possibly some shopping and cooking and laundry but it depends on your individual needs. Home helps who are employed to assist people with Hepatitis C who have a Health Amendment Act Card or families where the mother is dead or ill may be largely concerned with child minding, collection from school, etc. Home helps are not expected to provide nursing or medical care.

Each application for home help services is considered on its own merits. The Local Health Office may take a number of factors into account, including income, other family support available, remoteness from services and availability of suitable people to provide the service.

If you are given a service, you may be asked to contribute to the costs involved, even if you hold a medical card.

How to apply

You should apply to the local public health nurse, who assesses your need for the service and then processes the application to your Local Health Office.