Care & Repair: Free DIY jobs for Older People

This is a very difficult time for older people and Age Action has re-organised and re-branded its services to provide supports during the Covid-19 pandemic. The main activities are as follows;

Call Safe: Age Action staff are calling each of the 11,000 service users and members on our database. We are checking in to see how they are and providing them with information on local and national services that can help them at this time.

Home Safe: This is the Care & Repair programme response to the crisis. In short, it is Care & Repair with social distancing protocols in place, focussing on urgent requests and on supporting older people who are being discharged from hospital.

Hardship Fund: In association with Irish Red Cross.A grant of up to €500 is available for older people who require financial assistance at this time. (Please note that due to the volume of applications, applications have no longer been accepted since April 25th)

Advocacy and Communications: Age Action’s policy team are in regular contact with senior HSE and Government officials to highlight issues that older people are facing.

In terms of Care & Repair, all volunteers who themselves are over 60 years old or have an underlying health condition are not permitted to participate for safety reasons. This resulted in over 90% of our team being ineligible. A major recruitment campaign took place through Volunteer Ireland and a new team of trained and vetted volunteers has been put in place to deliver the service.

We have linked in with Health service structures and with local Covid-19 response groups. They are referring clients to us through their helplines and we in turn are referring people to them. We have been very successful in linking up with local organisations who are collecting shopping and providing other supports for older people.

There really has been a great community response to help older people through this difficult time. My hope is that many of the structures that have been set up at short notice can remain in place for those older people who need them after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.