Cork County Council Re-Launches Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme

Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Frank O’Flynn, Cork County Council, Patricia Liddy, Director of Service, MD operations and Development, Cork County Council, Micheal Lynch, Divisional Manager south Cork, Cork County Council , Liz Downes, Chair of the Cork County Older Persons Council and Anthony Holmes, Regional Programme Manager, Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme, Cork County Council is proud to support the Re-launch of the Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme,

Cork County Council is proud to support the Re-launch of the Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme, a service available to residents of County Cork aimed at supporting adults over 65 to remain living in their own homes and communities. The Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme was first run as a pilot programme in Cork County Council in 2021. Following its successful implementation, the programme has been rolled out to every local authority in the country since.

The Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme has had over 400 participants in Cork County since then. This ever-increasing demand is expected to continue well into 2024. To keep up with the increasing volume of referrals, Cork County Council now has two local coordinators and a regional programme manager to facilitate and enable older people to remain living in their own homes and to reduce the need to transfer to long-term residential care.

The Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr. Frank O Flynn welcomed the new programme saying, 

We have a rapidly ageing population here in Ireland. Most people wish to remain living in their own homes and communities, which unfortunately is not always possible. The Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme is an important, person-centred initiative aimed at helping older people to continue living in their homes or in one more suited to their needs.

Chair of Cork County’s Older People’s Council, Liz Downes spoke enthusiastically saying, "The Age Friendly Homes Programme is a great initiative, assisting older persons in accessing services, grants, and resources to enable them to stay happy and healthy at home, avoiding premature entry into long term care. On behalf of Cork County Older People’s Council and all our members we look forward to working with the local coordinators to promote the service."

Chief Executive of Cork County Council, Valerie O’Sullivan, added,

Cork County Council is proud to support the Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme and I am delighted that Cork County Council is among the first local authorities to participate in this programme which I’m sure will make a real difference to the lives of people living in communities across the county of Cork

Referrals can be made to the programme by phoning the Healthy Age Friendly Homes National Office on 046 9248899 or by emailing healthyagefriendlyhomes@meathcoco.ie