Home help service
Information
The Health Service Executive (HSE) 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 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.
Further information
Home help service and the law
Empowered by Section
61 of the Health Act 1970, the Health Service Executive (HSE) may make
arrangements to assist in the maintenance at home of people who are sick or
infirm, or their dependants. This assistance normally takes the form of the
Home Help service. The Act (Section 61(1) of the Health Act 1970) allows for
the service to be provided free of charge, or a charge may be levied.
The HSE is not obliged to make this service available to anyone except those 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. Hepatitis C sufferers therefore are the only people with a statutory entitlement to the Home Help service and this entitlement is set down in the Health (Amendment) Act 1996 as amended.
In practice, where the HSE provides a Home Help service, the service is mainly confined to older people and to families where a parent is ill or unable to cope.
In some cases, the HSE employs the home help directly. In other cases the
HSE finances a service which is organised by a voluntary organisation.
Sometimes people are asked to contribute towards the cost.
Language
Related Documents
- Hepatitis C and Health Amendment Act Cards
Services that are available to people who contracted Hepatitis C through the use of Human Immunoglobulin-Anti-D or through receiving blood products or blood transfusions in Ireland. - Occupational therapy services
Occupational therapy services in Ireland are designed to help people with disabilities achieve the maximum degree of independence in ordinary living. - Chiropody services
Chiropodists/podiatrists assess, diagnose and treat diseases and abnormalities of the foot. Some Local Health Offices provide chiropody services to certain eligible people.
Contact Us
If you have a question relating to this topic you can contact the Citizens Information Phone Service on 0761 07 4000 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm) or you can visit your local Citizens Information Centre.