Ministers for Health announce appointment of members of Commission on Care for Older People
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 29 February 2024
- Last updated on: 6 March 2024
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, today announced the appointment of the members of the Commission on Care for Older People.
The government is committed to supporting older people to access timely, high-quality, person-centred, integrated care in the most appropriate setting and to supporting positive ageing across the lifecourse.
The Commission on Care for Older People will examine the health and social care services and supports for older people across the continuum of care and make recommendations for their strategic developments. The Commission members provide expertise across the areas of geriatrics, gerontology, health economics, health policy and management, primary care, health ethics, health technologies, and ageing and disability.
A Reference Group of stakeholders will provide expertise and lived experience of the diverse and evolving needs of our ageing population and include the community and voluntary sector and older people representatives.
Announcing the members’ appointment, Minister Donnelly said:
"I am really pleased to announce the appointment of such a distinguished group of experts to the Commission. As leaders in their respective fields, they will bring to the Commission a wealth of knowledge and experience across specialities as diverse as geriatrics, gerontology, health economics, health policy and management, primary care, health ethics, health technologies, and ageing and disability. The appointment of representatives of the community and voluntary sectors and of older people will ensure that Commission’s work is informed by the lived experience of people across Ireland."
Heralding the members’ appointment as a significant step towards the establishment of the Commission, Minister Butler said:
"With their breadth of expertise and experience, the members of the Commission will ensure that the Commission’s recommendations are informed by emerging good practice and lessons learnt nationally and internationally. Most importantly, I am confident that the Commission and the Reference Group will ensure the voice of older people themselves is heard. I look forward to the establishment of the Commission in the coming weeks and to receiving their reports in due course."
Notes
Commission on Care for Older People
Under the Chairperson Professor Alan Barrett (Chief Executive Officer of the Economic and Social Research Institute), the Commission will be comprised of the following members:
- Dr. Emer Ahern, Consultant, Trauma and Orthogeriatrician, Cork University Hospital, and National Clinical Advisor and Group Lead, Older Persons, Health Service Executive. Dr. Ahern is currently the President of the Irish Gerontological Society
- Dr. Jonathan Cylus, Senior Research Fellow, London School of Economics and Head of the London Hubs of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
- Dr. Lucinda Dockeray, Director, Care of the Older Person Course, Irish College of General Practitioners
- Ita Healy, Chairperson, National Network of Older People’s Councils and the Chairperson of Meath’s Older People’s Council
- Professor Mary McCarron, Professor of Ageing and Intellectual Disability, and Director of the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability, Trinity College Dublin; Executive Director of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service
- Catherine McGuigan, Chief Officer, Age Friendly Ireland
- Seán Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer, ALONE
- Professor Christopher Nugent, Head of the School of Computing, Ulster University
- Professor Eamonn O’Shea, Personal Professor in the School of Business and Economics, Founding Director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, and Director of the Centre for Economic and Social Research on Dementia, University of Galway
- Cathy Reynolds, Lived Experience and Board Member, Alzheimer Society of Ireland
- Professor David Smith, Associate Professor of Health Care Ethics, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)
The Programme for Government: Our Shared Future (2020) commits to the establishment of ‘a commission to examine care and supports for older people’.
On 3 October 2023, Government approved the proposal, brought forward by the Minister for Health and the Minister for Mental Health and Older People for the establishment of an independent Commission on Care for Older People.
On 14 December 2023 the Minister for Health and the Minister for Mental Health and Older People announced the appointment of Professor Alan Barrett (Chief Executive Officer of the Economic and Social Research Institute) as the Chairperson of the Commission.
The Commission, which will be supported by a secretariat from the Department of Health, will be formally established imminently.
The work of the Commission will be advanced through three discrete modules of work. The first two modules will be of six months’ duration while the final module will be of 12 months’ duration. The modules will run consecutively, the first module is due to commence in early 2024.
Module 1 will explore current services and learning for the future, particularly focusing on; health and social care services, models of supported living for older people, and policy initiative that are in train within the social care system.
Module 2 will explore options for the future, particularly focusing on: the strategic development of health and social care, the strategic development of capital infrastructure, new technologies, and funding and resource allocation.
A report will be prepared after Module 2 for the consideration of the Minister for Health and Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People detailing the challenges and opportunities identified, and presenting a framework for the overarching strategic development of health and social care services and supports for older people that advances national strategic objectives.
Subsequently, a cross-departmental group will be established under the auspices of the Commission to consider whether the supports for positive ageing across the lifecourse are fit-for-purpose and to develop a costed implementation plan for options to optimise these supports.