First home for elderly Irish speakers opens doors

One of the most westerly communities on the Atlantic seaboard has opened its first home for Irish-speaking senior citizens under a public/private health initiative.

Ms Kate Greene (94) became the first and oldest resident on Christmas Day in the new home built by Coiste na nAosach in Carna, west Connemara.

Major investors in the project are general practitioner, Dr Michael Casey, and his wife Sally, a senior registered nurse, who have spearheaded a series of self-help initiatives in the area. It was also grant-aided by Údarás na Gaeltachta.

Up until now, Ms Greene was one of a group of elderly people in Carna/Cill Chiaráin who had no choice but to leave for nursing homes up to 70 miles away in east Galway, Dr Casey points out.

"Kinvara and Loughrea, along with Merlin Park Hospital in Galway, some 50 miles east, were the only options until now," he told The Irish Times.

Apart from the sense of isolation from family, friends and community, there was also the break with the Gaeltacht environment and the native language.

Carna/Cill Chiaráin is one of the State's top ten unemployment blackspots, with a community of some 1,800 dependent latterly on activities like fish farming and part-time agriculture - both of which have been under pressure.

Between 1996 and 2002, census figures show a decline of some 7 to 9 per cent and the percentage of the population in the over-65 age group is approaching 20 per cent - compared to an 11 per cent national average.

A survey carried out in the community in the late 1980s identified provision of a nursing home as one of the most vital requirements, but direct funding was not available from the Western Health Board (WHB).

At this stage, the Carna/Cill Chiaráin parishes were in the final stages of setting up their own Order of Malta Unit, and in 1991 they established a community ambulance service.

The ambulance service is unique in that it is run on a voluntary basis by the trained Order of Malta team, and two volunteers are on call at all times to bring people to hospital when required.

In 1992, the community established a day activity centre for older people at Glynsk school, and in 1993 it received support from emigrants in Boston to fund heart resuscitation equipment at the Carna medical practice.

Coiste na nAosach then secured a site for a nursing home, and convinced Údarás na Gaeltachta to give over €1 million in grant aid for the project, with Dr Casey and his wife committing over €3 million.

In 1999, the then junior health minister, Mr Frank Fahey, committed State support under an arrangement with the Department of Health to fund a proportion of publicly-funded beds on a long-term basis.

This was agreed because of the particular geographic, linguistic and cultural issues which arose in relation to older people in west Connemara, Dr Casey said.

Built behind Carna church and beside the sea, the nursing home has 52 beds, will have a staff of 30, and is equipped with physiotherapy and Alzheimer treatment units. Some 19 of the 52 beds are public, through Department of Health support, and Dr Casey expects the home to be full within three years.

Ms Bernie Ní Shúilleabháin from Glynsk has been appointed nurse clinical manager at the project, and three more residents were due to arrive in recent days.

Since emigration has been a harsh fact of life in the area, the nursing home's catchment is expected to extend across the Atlantic. One of its first bookings came from a Connemara native living in Massachusetts.