The first newsletter dedicated to Home Support Workers for older people.

1. June 2010
Home Support Workers
Welcome from the Netwell Centre
Dear Reader,
A warm welcome to our first newsletter for Home Support Workers!
We plan to publish a number of newsletters to share experiences and news of Home Sup-
port Workers providing care to older people in County Louth.
I believe that with the right supports, more older people can live for longer in their own
homes. As Home Support Workers, you are an important part of the frontline services to
the realisation of this vision. Frontline services are the backbone of care in the community,
supporting our most vulnerable older people to continue to live in their own homes with
dignity. Yet your voice has all too often been lost in debates around older people’s ser-
vices. I hope this newsletter will go some way towards improving communications with you
Rodd Bond,
and raising your profile in the care of older people as part of Primary Care Services.
Netwell Centre Director
The Netwell Centre in conjunction the HSE and the Local Authority are developing new
ideas to enhance the quality of life and well-being of older people and those who care for
them. This will be achieved through more integrated community-oriented services, more
sustainable home and neighbourhood design, and more age-friendly technologies.
Volume 1, Issue 1
The team and I share the commitment of the HSE and the Local Authority to improving the
quality of life of older people and look forward to supporting you in your care work.
Kind regards,
Rodd Bond
Inside this issue:
Survey Results 2
The Home Support Workers’ Survey
The Respect Project 3 People are living longer than able older people to remain contracted by the HSE to
ever before. The Central at home: washing, dressing, care for older people. The
Upcoming Events 4 Statistics Office estimate that dealing with incontinence, aim was to provide an in-
the number of people aged etc. You help prevent inap- depth profile of Home Sup-
over 65 will double between propriate hospital and nursing port Workers, to explore their
now and 2026 and triple by home admissions of older job motivations; their training
2041 (CSO, 2008). Our age- people. and support needs, their atti-
ing population has implica- tudes towards their future
tions for health service plan- In many cases, you are the careers, and their experi-
ning. It is Government’s be- only people who have daily ences in-post.
lief that the rising cost of care contact with the most vulner-
can be off-set by reducing able older people in our com- The response rate was high,
Supported by the munity, yet little research with almost three-quarters
demands for hospital beds
Health Service Executive
through the provision of has sought to understand (70%) of the questionnaires
more services closer to the your needs and experiences. returned out of a total sample
home. As Home Support of 305 care workers.
Workers you have an impor- To address this research
tant role to play in the suc- gap, the Netwell Centre con- This newsletter provides a
cess of this policy goal. ducted a questionnaire sur- summary of the results.
Supported by the vey with all Home Support
The European Union’s PEACE III Programme You provide the necessary Workers in County Louth who
as awarded by Louth Peace & Reconciliation are employed by the HSE or
personal and practical care
Partnership
which help to enable vulner- an independent provider

2. Home Support Workers Page 2
Results of Home Support Workers’ Survey
Routes into care / motivation excellent but nearly a quarter said they that the training they had received was
have ‘back problems’. The HSE pro- ‘effective’ or ‘very effective’ and 31.9%
The vast majority (96. 8%) of Home vide manual handling courses annually said they would need further training
Support Workers are women. In addi- in addition to lifting aids and other sup- in specific areas to carry out their cur-
tion, a majority are married (71%), ports as required. rent work. The most frequently re-
reflecting the gendered influences ported areas in which training was
which shape paid care work. Many Levels of morale and psychological considered necessary were: Alz-
have come to the job having previously well-being of workers appears good, heimer’s/Dementia, palliative care, and
cared for a family member or because with 88.8% reporting that they ‘often’ care of older people. A new clinical
they can fit the work around their fam- or ‘very often’ feel ‘generally happy’, coordinator for Home Support has
ily. Some 17.5% have caring respon- but evidence suggests many are con- been appointed and more individual-
sibilities for children, 12% have caring cerned about future health needs. ised training opportunities will be avail-
responsibilities for grandchildren, Nearly 20% reported that they ‘often’ able in the future.
27.9% have caring responsibilities for or ‘very often’ worry about their future
Volume 1, Issue 1
other family members and 19.5% have health. A further 14% report that they Clients’ personal & practical needs
caring responsibilities for friends/ ‘often’ or ‘very often’ worry about their
neighbours. ‘future care needs’. Financial insecu- Care workers are clearly sensitive to
rity is also a concern , with 18.8% the health and social care needs of
While family circumstances provided ‘often’ or ‘very often’ concerned about their clients . Over three-quarters be-
the main route into caring, workers finances. lieve that clients’ personal care needs
were clearly very committed to the are fully met, but 14% say they are not
care of older people. Training fully met. Eighty percent say clients’
practical care needs are fully met, but
12% believe they are not fully met.
Ireland is fast moving from personal
“I always wanted to work Where workers are concerned about
experience as a basis of home care for
with people, I just like clients they can contact the PHN and
older people (largely mothers and
helping people”. ask for a review of client needs.
housewives) to a formally qualified
sector. This can be seen in the differ-
Summary
ent beliefs workers hold about appro-
priate knowledge of care work and Home Support Workers are an impor-
Profile of workers how to obtain it, with 44% of workers tant part of frontline services in the
reporting that training is ‘not applica- community. Changing demographics
The age prolife of workers points to an ble’ to them. point to a great reliance on these work-
ageing workforce. The youngest
ers in the future as more people live
worker was aged 26 years and the Many have embarked on training while
longer in later life. It is crucial that we
oldest 79, giving an average age of 51 in employment, with 21.1% either cur-
have accurate and timely information
years. rently working towards or have com-
on the needs and experiences of these
pleted FETAC Level 5 ‘Care of the
The majority of participants (45%) workers in order to assist them to pro-
Older Person’; a further 17.1% are
work 5 days a week, a further quarter vide the best possible care they can
currently working towards or have
(25.9%) work 7 days a week. Just for vulnerable older people. The re-
completed FETAC Level 2 ‘Care of the
over a quarter (26.3%) perform house- sults from this survey will make an
Older Person’, and 5.2% are working
hold tasks, a further 14% provide per- important contribution to this.
towards or have completed FETAC
sonal care and over half (59%) provide Level 2 ‘Palliative Care Support’. If you would like to hear the full results
both personal and practical care.
of this survey, come along to our
When asked what motivated them to
The majority of participants work for feedback session which will be con-
undertake this training, respondents
the HSE (87.3%), with the average ducted by the Netwell Centre in con-
pointed to a desire ‘to be better quali-
length of employment equating to 9 junction with the HSE. This session
fied’ (29.1%), ‘to be ready for changes
years. In terms of nationality, the ma- will be held in Louth Hospital at a time
in care’ (24.7%), ‘a practical need for
jority (82.1%) are Irish, 12.7% are Ni- convenient to you. You will be given
more training’ (20.3%), ‘a requirement
gerian, with the remainder coming information on dates and times shortly.
of employment’ (17.9%) and a desire
from various other European and Afri- to ‘get a better job’ (10.8%). If you have any queries or would like
can countries. additional information contact:
Satisfaction with training Lucia Carragher T: 042 937 0347
Health E: lucia.carragher@netwellcentre.org
Of those who participated in training,
Three-quarters of workers rated their nearly three-quarter (73.9% ) reported
current health status as very good or

3. Page 3
REach out to SuPport EthniC diversiTy (Respect)
The Respect Project is concerned with this type of situation and that for her; I tried to tell her we do not eat
with migrant care workers and clearer work guidelines would help. porridge in my country and the HSE did
identifying the issues they face at Some referred to the need for carers to not show me how to make it, but she
work and in the community. The contribute to care plans rather than was very angry with me.’
overall aim is to ensure that migrant filling out reports. As one carer com-
carers are treated with fairness and mented, ‘we write and write in care Acceptance by clients
dignity at work and in society and to plans but we get no feedback’.
One migrant worker referred to prob-
promote cross-community under-
Cultural differences lems that some older people have ‘in
standing.
accepting a black care worker’, adding
Migrant care workers make an impor- It was clear from conversations that dis- that it was difficult to know what to do
tant contribution to supporting vulner- tinctive cultural differences exist between about this because it happens ‘in pri-
able older people to live in their own migrant and Irish care workers. One Irish vate’ in the homes of clients.
homes and communities. Yet the con- carer commented:
Shared learning
tribution these workers make to the
‘They [migrant carers] won’t talk to
economic and social life of the north
clients, they just do their work and When asked what migrant carers can
east is often overlooked because so
leave’. teach Irish carers, migrant workers
little is known of their experiences at
pointed to a number of positive attrib-
work and in the community. Lack of
However, as the comments of this utes such as patience, love and com-
knowledge and cultural understanding
migrant worker suggest, the fear of passion. Similarly, Irish care workers,
can in turn have a destabilising effect
cultural misunderstandings can be a identified knowledge of other cultures
in host communities. The Netwell Cen-
barrier to integration. and other perspectives on old age and
tre is addressing this social and cul-
caring for older people.
tural issue by bringing workers to-
gether—migrant and Irish—as well as Summary
their employers and clients to facilitate ‘We do not realise we speak too loud. I
discussions and the emergence of a did not know until one day a client said,
Migrant care workers make an impor-
shared understanding of cultural diver- ‘why are you shouting at me’. But I
tant contribution to the care of vulner-
sity. didn’t realise, you see that’s the way we
able older people in need of assis-
speak in my country. So now I am
afraid to talk in case I offend clients— tance with activities of daily living. Yet
Workshop One little is know of migrant workers’ ex-
and I know lots of other black carers
who feel the same’. periences of working in a culturally
On 25th November 2009 we held the
different society, particularly in the
first of two workshops planned with
private realm of the home while caring
migrant and Irish care workers, em-
for clients. The findings from this
ployers and older people. The work-
workshop will make an important con-
shop was attended by 30 home sup- Migrant care workers also experience
tribution to this information gap and
port worker, immigrant and Irish, lead- problems in preparing common Irish
towards raising cultural awareness in
ing to a very lively and productive dis- dishes such as porridge, with implica-
the north east.
cussion. Below are the themes which tion for both client and worker satisfac-
emerged from this workshop. tion.
Opinions about care work ‘The lady asked me to make porridge
The aspects of care work favoured by
both migrant and Irish carers reflect
their motivations to care for people.
Reach out to support ethnic diversity (Respect) is a project
Again and again we listened as carers supported by the European Union's PEACE III Pro-
described how they ‘like caring for gramme as awarded by Louth Peace and Reconciliation
people’ and how they ‘always wanted
to work with people’.
Small numbers cited aspects such as
difficult clients and clients’ families
placing unreasonable demands to do
additional tasks. Others commented
that it was difficult to know how to deal

4. ...Transforming Communities, Environments & Technologies for Age ing-in- Pl ace
Netwell Centre
Upcoming workshop with Home Support Workers
Workshop 2 - June 2010
We will hold a second workshop in June
2010 to address all the issues high-
lighted above. You will be given full
details of the date, time and location,
shortly.
If you have any queries regarding our
workshops, contact:
Lucia Carragher
T: 042 937 0347
E: lucia.carragher@netwellcentre.org
Service brokerage is provided by the Netwell Centre to strengthen capacity to provide information to
older people. “Cúltaca” is the Irish name for the service brokers meaning a strong support or backup.
If you would like to speak to our Cúltaca for older people, contact:
Ann Marron, T: 042 939 1078 E: ann.marron@netwelllcentre.org or
Pat Kerins, T: 042 937 0531 E: patrick.kerins@netwelllcentre.org
Regional Development Centre
Dundalk Institute of Technology
Dublin Road, Dundalk,
Co Louth.
Tel: +353 (0)42 937 0497
...Transforming Communities,
Fax: +353 (0)42 933 1163 Environments and Technologies for
E-mail: info@netwellcentre.org
ageing-in-place.
We are on the web:
www.netwellcentre.org