Cavan’s last ‘Boarding Out’ facility to close its doors
Cavan’s last remaining ‘Boarding Out’ facility will close its doors for the last time on Thursday July 31.
Such facilities allow individuals or families to take care of elderly people in their own home, people who are not able to live independently but do not need high levels of medical support.
Pauline McEntee, with the help of her husband Dermot, has been providing this service in Arva town for the past 14 years. She currently has seven elderly people in her care and lives at home on the outskirts of the town centre where she looks after them.
A “home from home” is how she described the service to The Anglo-Celt, a place where people can still live in their community and be looked after with meals, care and help with medical appointments. The home has an open-door policy where family members and friends can visit their loved ones at any time of the day.
The day the Celt calls, the door is open and in the space of an hour, one neighbour pops in to visit and another family member strolls in for a chat and a cup of tea. They are delighted with the initiative, knowing that their loved ones and neighbours are being looked after twenty-four seven, however the clock is now ticking towards the time Pauline will close the door for good.
It was a “sad” experience for her to tell her seven clients, one who has been with her for almost 14 years, that she would no longer be looking after them.
“They were crying, very upset,” said Pauline, who was emotional herself at the memory. The news couldn’t have come at a worse time as she told them the same week RTÉ investigates aired the care failings and neglect of vulnerable older residents at nursing homes, The Residence Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor in Glasnevin.
“They were all listening on the radio and nobody wanted nursing homes,” she recalls.
Asked where her current residents will go now, Pauline replies, “Nursing homes if they would agree to go.”
“If they don’t agree to go then they can’t actually make them go into it,” she says, explaining that family members may take them, or they could live on their own, which she doesn’t think they are able for at this stage.
“Which they can’t. They’re here too long they wouldn’t actually be able to survive on their own in a house.”
Pauline “absolutely” would like to continue to look after them however states, “I’m not going to be doing it now because I can’t do it.”
Regulations for Boarding Out were put in place in 1993 and have not been updated in over 14 years, and in that time the rate of pay for those providing the service has also not increased. A contribution is paid by the HSE, while the boarder also pays a fee for their service, however the HSE does not pay any more than half the weekly non-contributory State pension for each person availing of the scheme. This is “considerably lower” compared to nursing home fees. In the last number of years, food expenses have “doubled” while waste collection “has nearly tripled”, not to mention heating, electricity and insurance.
“Of what we make, the half of it nearly goes back in tax,” Pauline outlines.
She researched the cost of a nursing home for one week and came back with figures of €1,750 and €1,400 per week depending on the nursing home.
“At this stage we said we have to just stop. I’m not fit to work seven days a week is the main reason. You’ve no social life, you can’t do anything, you can’t go anywhere and you just get wore out.”
Pauline’s home is about one mile outside of Arva, where she lives with her husband, however she has been there twice since Christmas. Even to go and do shopping, her husband must be there to take care of the residents in order for her to go. Pauline also brings her residents to doctors’ appointments and sorts out their medication.
The cost of a private carer to come to the house for three hours is €105 and €50 per hour on the weekend after 6pm. A wedding in April meant her residents had to go into respite care.
“It’s down to us, and we’re here all the time.”
She believes the facility aligns with the HSE and Department of Health’s Sláintecare, one of the main aims of which is for people to stay healthy in their own homes and communities for longer, and doesn’t understand why the HSE isn’t providing more support. She “absolutely” feels she and others who run the ‘Boarding Out’ facilities are not being supported enough.
“This should have been long long changed,” she believes, reporting that when she began there were 14 such houses in the county. The last one in Arva closed only one year ago, and at the end of next month there will be none left in Cavan. Such is the lack of awareness of the scheme that she reports “a lot of people don’t even know what ‘Boarding Out’ is.”
The 60-year-old said that Boarding Out houses are like a “home from home” for the elderly.
“A few of them haven’t got any family. It’s just company for them. They get everything done from when they get up in the morning to when they go to bed at night. They get all their meals, if there’s any social activities or anything - if they’re able they go to Cavan or Longford, some go to bingo. It’s just great.”
“It’s not like a nursing home where they can’t go out.”
“It’s just desperate to think that they’d [the HSE] actually let it close. I’ve been on to them for the last number of years, surely six years trying to fight for this.”
The Cornafean native was introduced to Boarding Out by her sister the late Kathleen Teegan who had been doing it for a “long long time.”
“I do feel none of the HSE ever pushed it.”
Pauline Reilly, who is the next of kin for resident John Pat, sticks her head in and chats to the Celt on the recent developments.
She fumed that figures don’t “add up” when you compare the cost of a nursing home with what Pauline receives for her Boarding Out service. Her 99-year-old neighbour, whom she came to visit, does not want to go into a nursing home.
She takes care of John Pat on behalf of his nieces who live abroad, and has always considered him a “good neighbour.” She was the one who got him into the Arva facility, where he has been for the last four years.
“This is awful,” she states, adding she is “very annoyed” and “upset” for Pauline who has put years of work into the facility.
“He was very happy here; he could go out. He does three rounds of this place every morning walking. We can take him in and out as often as we like, it’s a home from home and he is being very well looked after.
“He has his independence and yet he has support, that’s what’s important.”
John Pat has already picked out a nursing home which he would like to go to, and the next step is filling out forms for a placement.
“All the neighbours can come in here, it’s an open-door policy and if he goes to a nursing home,” she trails off.
“He’s too good for a nursing home,” she says, referencing an assessment they got done before.
“We were told that a few years ago before he came here,” she finishes.
Easy going
Michael McGovern, who is in the facility for almost fourteen years also spoke to the Celt on how he feels.
“I like it here, I don’t like leaving,” the Corlough native reports.
“It’s easy going, you can go into Cavan or you can go into Longford,” he surmised, adding that he went to bingo and won €30 the previous night. Michael tells the Celt he is just back from Lourdes; his tenth visit over. He also walks the dog Susie daily which is something he will miss.
“Susie brings us for a walk,” he laughed.
“It’s a pity but that’s the way,” the West Cavan man said.
Speaking on the issue, Senator Pauline Tully said “it’s not that difficult to amend” the regulations for ‘Boarding Out’ as it’s a “statutory instrument.”
“What I’ve asked is that they review the HSE contribution, that they standardise it, that they look at the capacity issue,” states Senator Tully, who has been working with the provider to try to get the legislation changed, but to no avail.
Pauline praised the efforts of Senator Tully, whom she said has brought up the issue “numerous times” since 2020, however said her hopes of something improving for her have always been diminished. Now she has taken a final decision to close her facility on July 31.
In response to a query from The Anglo-Celt, a HSE spokesperson stated: “The HSE can confirm that notification has been received in relation to the potential closure of the Boarding Out facility in Cavan. The HSE continue to engage with the Proprietor to support a positive solution for all people involved.”