Older people

Worried about a parent living alone? A practical safety checklist

If you have an older parent living on their own, you already know the low hum of worry that comes with it. The phone that rings out. The winter you spend wondering if the heating is on. The drive home after a visit, turning over what you did not quite like the look of. This guide turns that worry into a checklist: the supports the State will actually pay for, the home basics worth sorting, and the honest options for keeping an eye from a distance.

Start with the money they are entitled to

A surprising number of older people never claim supports they qualify for, either because they do not know about them or do not like to ask. Going through these on their behalf is one of the most useful things you can do:

• Living Alone Increase, an extra 22 euro a week on top of a State pension for people who live on their own.
• Fuel Allowance, help with heating costs over the winter, worth 38 euro a week during the season.
• Household Benefits Package, a contribution to electricity or gas plus a free TV licence.
• Free Travel Scheme, free public transport, which keeps people connected and out of the house.
• Medical card or GP visit card, free GP visits and cheaper prescriptions, means tested.

Many people qualify for several of these at once. If you are not sure, the grant finder will list what the household is likely to be entitled to in about a minute, with no sign-up.

Sort the home safety basics

You do not need to turn the house into a hospital. A short walk-through catches most of the real risks:

• Falls first. Stairs, loose rugs, poor lighting and the bathroom are where most falls happen. Our guide to preventing falls at home goes through the fixes in detail, several of which are grant-funded.
• Heating. Make sure the heating works and they are willing to use it. A cold house is a health risk in its own right, and the Fuel Allowance above exists to help.
• The cooker. A forgotten ring or oven is a common worry. Simple automatic shut-off devices exist and are inexpensive.
• Food and medication. A quiet look in the fridge and at the pill box tells you a lot. A weekly pill organiser, and the pharmacy’s prompts, help with medicines being taken correctly.
• Trip hazards and clutter on floors and stairs, and a working smoke alarm on every floor.

If bigger changes are needed, the Housing Adaptation Grant funds stairlifts, level-access showers, grab rails and ramps up to 40,000 euro, and the HSE aids and appliances service provides smaller equipment free on assessed need.

Keeping an eye from a distance

The hardest part of a parent living alone is the gap between visits. You cannot be there all the time, and nor should you have to be. A few layers help.

The first is a simple routine, an agreed daily call or a neighbour who looks in, so that a problem is noticed in hours rather than days. The second is the Seniors Alert Scheme, a free monitored pendant alarm for eligible over-65s. If your parent presses the button, a monitoring centre answers and calls for help. It is a genuinely good first step and worth applying for.

Where families want more than a button, two gaps tend to come up. One is that a pendant only works if the person can actually reach and press it, which is not a given during a bad fall. The other is that the scheme calls a monitoring centre rather than alerting you directly. For families who want a fall to raise the alarm on its own and want the alert to reach their own phone, Norse Watches makes a watch and companion app built around exactly that, letting a nominated family member keep an eye and receive alerts automatically. It is bought privately rather than through any scheme, so it is worth being clear about which gap you are actually trying to close before spending on it.

Look after yourself too

If you are the one doing the worrying and the driving and the paperwork, you are a carer, even if nobody has used that word. You may be entitled to support in your own right, such as the Carer’s Support Grant. Taking that seriously is not selfish, it is what keeps you able to keep helping.

Common questions