Directory of Services for Older People in Galway City and County

Description

Through the Age Friendly Alliance, Galway City & County Councils and the HSE identified a need for a Directory of Services to fulfil the information & communication needs for the Age Friendly Programme, while acting as a reference guide for staff as part of the Integrated Care for Older People Programme. The other crucial element was the voice of the older person, and it was agreed that the Older People’s Councils would be integral to the development of the Directory of Services.

A Working Group was established comprising staff from all of the services areas within the HSE, the 2 local authorities, and representatives from the Older People’s Councils in both local authority areas. At the outset the roles of all parties was clarified:
* the HSE staff put forward the use by their staff of the Directory of Services last published in 2015, and the feedback from their clients who had used the Directory.
* the local authorities would liaise with all other Age Friendly Alliance partners to ensure that services and supports across all the World Health Organisation Themes were reflected in the Directory of Services.
* the OPC representatives on the Working Group would input into all elements of the process, while each chapter, once in draft format, would revert to both OPC’s in full for their comments and input.
In this way, it was intended that the Directory of Services would fulfil its objectives of being the central reference point not just for Older People, but for their families and carers, as well as for Service Providers themselves.

The most recent Directory of Services for Galway City & County was published in 2015 and was based on an A-Z listing of all services, groups, and supports. The analysis by the Working Group identified that presentation of information across categories of support would be a more targeted format, and that basing the Directory of Services chapters on the WHO Themes would also be a common sense approach to promoting the basic concepts of the Age Friendly Programme.

It was accepted from the outset was that it was impossible to include all information, and a decision was made in the case of social participation, to signpost individuals to the Public Participation Networks, which would strengthen the awareness and understanding of their role as the primary database of all community & voluntary groups providing social and leisure opportunities for local communities across the City and County.

Another element which was accepted was that we were likely to make errors or omissions in the Directory, and not please all potential customers! Therefore, an important part of the process was to build in a feedback mechanism where an individual or organisation could submit feedback and the Working Group would continue to meet to review feedback and update the Directory of Services. This first update meeting has taken place and the first re-issue of the Directory will take place in September 2024.

How it works:
Each chapter of the Directory was assigned a lead from the Working Group and was responsible for reverting to the Working Group with a draft for discussion. For example, the local authorities developed the chapters on housing, transport, social participation; the HSE developed chapters on Health & Community Support Services and Health and Wellbeing; and the OPC’s visited the Citizens Information Services to review the most common queries by older people to feed into the Advice and Information chapter.

Each chapter was then reviewed by the OPC’s and this process proved extremely valuable, as it resulted in over 30 amendments and additions to the chapters, with some of the suggestions being extremely practical suggestions which the Working Group were not even aware of – this highlights exactly why the voice of the older person should be central to the Age Friendly Programme initiatives!

Any piece of information is useless unless it is distributed to those who need it most and each partner went away and considered how this would be done. The outcomes of this process are as follows:

HSE: the HSE distributed the Directory of Services via soft copy and it is a key reference point for all staff in supporting clients. All sections dealing directly with clients, particularly the Integrated Care Programme, also have hard copies which they explain and give to all their clients. They have also distributed the Directory to every GP Office in the City & County and to all Carers through their Carers Support Groups.

Galway City Council visited all of their Older Persons Groups to give a talk on the Directory and distribute copies. In addition, they distributed them through the SICAP Programme Implementer, Tenant Liaison Officers, Day Care Centres and the City Libraries.

Galway County Council asked OPC Members and Elected Members to distribute the Directories to all older people’s Groups in their area, and Community Alert schemes also got the directories through Muintir na Tire. An Garda Siochana distributed the Directories to all older people on the Register of Vulnerable People, and the Mobile LIbrary Service distributed them to all their customers, with a Message in a Bottle which is one of the safety initiatives in the Safety & Security Chapter. They were also distributed to Family Resource Centres and Meals on Wheels providers so that their customers would get a copy. In addition, the Healthy Age Friendly Homes Coordinator distributes them to each of the people he visits.

From the above, it will be seen that the approach to distribution has been very targeted. In all, 3,500 hard copies of the Directory of Services have been circulated and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Aim of Initiative

COVID-19 taught us all that we cannot rely on access to information through online sources alone, and there is a huge need to ensure a medium of communication methods. The aim of the Directory of Services for Older People is to provide a plain english explanation of all the services and supports which are available to help them, and to make sure that the hard copy version gets to those who may have less access to online services.

Who is it aimed at

This initiative is aimed at older people, their friends and carers, but also to Service Providers themselves.

3 Steps critical to success

1. A partnership approach recognising the overlaps between the Age Friendly Programme and the Integrated Care for Older People.
2. The voice of the older person in the process, as we found out they know best all of the initiatives and supports which are out there!
3. Very targeted distribution to reach those least likely to access services, or have information on services through online means.

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. Money… However, one of the primary benefits of a partnership approach was that it was agreed to fund the Directory jointly across all the participating agencies.
2. A plain english approach – unfortunately, many Guidelines for services and supports use abbreviations, acronyms, and jargon which makes it unclear and unhelpful to customers. At the outset, clear principles were agreed by the Working Group in line with NALA’s plain english guidelines with consistency across the format of all chapters.
3. Publicity – it was really important to ensure that the Directory was widely publicised across the county. This was done through a launch event by both Chief Executives where 200 older people attended and also fed into initial consultation on an age friendly strategy.

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. An excellent working relationship with all sections of the HSE, which is now going to continue so that the Age Friendly Programme and Integrated Care Programme can progess hand-in-hand.
2. A really useful reference point for older people, their families, their carers, and for Service Providers themselves.
3. Better knowledge of the Age Friendly Programme and its aims.