This lesson focuses on care for dependent older people, looking at where care is provided in Ireland and at the impact caring has on the carer. The lesson suggests a number of practical activities to help the children explore what life is like for those older people who need care.
The overall aim of this theme Cúram agus roinnt is to enable the child to:
The objectives of this lesson are to enable the child to:
For this lesson, you may choose to print out copies of the case studies (From the carers point of view), in Activity 3 in this lesson for the children - click here to print the case studies. Note that Activity 4 in this lesson provides background information for one of the Online activities, Design Mary's house, which you will find in Have a go, Activity 6 .
| Lesson plan | Discussion Brainstorm Case studies Art |
Caring is a two-way
process Types of care From the carer's point of view Design Mary’s house |
| Online Activities | Pop-up facts | Caring |
Multiple choice Art |
Caring Design Mary’s house |
|
Internet activity Creative writing Classroom visitor Classroom visitor Project |
The carer's allowance What a day I had! An older person on life in a nursing home An older person as a teacher E-mail contact with a nursing home |
Depending on whether your class has covered Care and share in third or fourth class, you can spend more or less time on this discussion. Invite the class to discuss who needs care in their families and in their neighbourhood and who gives care. Then focus on the care needs of older people. The following questions and background information may be helpful:
It should be emphasised that caring involves giving and receiving over a lifetime (reciprocity) and mutual dependency at different stages. Emphasise that most older people living on their own live independently and do not need any help. One in twenty (5%) of older people live in long-stay institutions and one in twenty (5%) need a lot of care in the community but this is only a total of 10% of older people that need a lot of care. Another 6% of older people need some care from family members. But that means that 8 out of every 10 older people live totally independent lives - explore what level of care your class thinks older people might need.
If appropriate, mention that many older people live active lives in the community by joining voluntary organisations such as sports clubs and active retirement associations. Many older people help their adult children by looking after their grandchildren.
Use a brainstorm to find out how much the children already know about the types of care services that are available for older people. Ask where care is available, who receives care and for how long.
Background information on the care that is provided in Ireland is presented below in a table entitled, Overview of care. Create a similar table on the blackboard. Fill in the table with information the children provide. Use the table below to complete the table.
The following questions may be helpful:
Click here to print a copy of this table.
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Overview of care |
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| Where is care given? | Who gives care? | How long does care last for? | Other comments |
| Care at home | Usually family, mainly spouse or daughter/daughter-in-law | Depends on the need, but average about 7 hours per day | Reciprocity in action - give and take over a life-time. |
| Home help | Paid help - state funded, but provided also by voluntary organisations | 2-3 hours a day is usual | Home helps do household tasks. Pay per hour for home helps is considered low. |
| Sheltered housing | Sometimes paid wardens. Other services also provided - home help, meals-on-wheels etc. | Full-time | Allows independent living in a protected environment. |
| Day care centres | Run by the state, usually the health boards, or by voluntary groups | 4-5 hours a day | No medical help but activity-based (crafts, reading, music) and social contact; food is provided, which is very significant for older people. |
| Day hospitals | Medical care provided, usually nursing care | At regular intervals as needed | E.g. after stroke, physiotherapy is available. Good because it means the older person doesn’t have to stay in hospital. |
| Respite care | Professional carers, usually run by the health boards | For weekend or week at intervals | Allows main carer to take a break; excellent support for main carer, but limited availability. |
| Long-term care Public |
Run by health boards, nursing and other staff | Full-time | Much larger than private long-term institutions (up to 200 beds). Free. |
| Long-term care: Private |
Run by professionals as a business for profit | Full-time | Mainly paid for by patient, with some financial support available for less well-off older people from HB max. in 1999: £120 per week. Av. Cost in 1999: £250 per week |
The following extracts are submissions to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs to a review of the Carer’s Allowance. The Carers Allowance in 1998, £75 per week, is given to full-time carers and it is means-tested.
Click here to print a copy of the three case studies.
Read or ask a child to read the following:
Caring for my neighbours
"I have been a carer in my local community for older people. Sometimes, older people cannot speak for themselves. When older people return from hospital, there is little support for them or their carers. There are people in their homes in dire straits with no help. I looked after one woman, whose husband was dead. There was no family to take care of her, no fire lit in the house when she was sent home from hospital. I called several times a day doing breakfast, dishes, lighting the fire, then coming back with some dinner and again at teatime and putting her to bed. There is too much expected of carers. People are not told what services are available."
Discuss this piece with the class. The following questions may be helpful:
Read or ask a child to read the following:
Looking after my mother
"When I took the responsibility of caring for my mother, I did not realise the amount of work involved, the stress, the financial cost and the total change to my family life. At this moment in time, I think I’m on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I’m certainly under strain, not because of my mother, but because of the treatment we get when we look for any kind of help in order to be able to take on this tremendous responsibility. I feel demoralised and humiliated right now. I hope someone somewhere will see the injustice of all this and hopefully do something about it."
Discuss this piece with the class. The following questions may be helpful:
Read or ask a child to read the following:
Martha’s story - looking after her father
"My father has been living on his own since my mother died some years ago. He is used to living a very independent life and has never asked me for any help. But about six months ago, he became ill and was in hospital for two weeks. When he came out, he was still weak from the operation and he didn’t have the same strength that he used to have. So, I drop in to see him on my way to work in the morning, just to make sure he is OK. I live on the other side of town and I always phone him or drop by in the evenings. My sister lives in Dublin, so she comes down to see him once a month, which is a help. She phones him a few times a week as well.
He makes his own breakfast, but the meals-on-wheels deliver a hot lunch to him every day. His neighbours take turns to call in to see him in the afternoons, so he always has a visitor from outside the family every day. My two daughters drop in to see him after school. I’ve arranged for a home help to call in a few times a week to tidy up around the house. At first, he didn’t like the idea at all, but he’s getting used to it now. At first, it was very worrying when my father came out of hospital, I didn’t know how I’d manage, but with the help of the neighbours, meals-on-wheels, my family and the home help, every thing is working out. Since I started taking care of my father, I feel I’ve got to know him a lot better."
Discuss this piece with the class. The following questions may be helpful:
Compare the three stories and discuss what the role of a carer is like, looking at how the caring affects the life of the carer. Martha’s story, in particular, shows the positive and negative aspects. Tell the children about the carers allowance - approx. £75 per week in 1998 and discuss what the children think: should carers be paid? Note that in the Online activities, Things to do, Activity 1 is an Internet exercise asking the children to look up information on the Carers Allowance on the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs web site.
From the stories, what other support would carers like? Following from the discussion, you could point out the following needs that carers have:
Many carers feel isolated. They also feel that their needs are not recognised, nor do they receive enough support from the state. A number of studies have identified the following needs of carers:
Note that the Web site of the Irish Carers Association is at http://homepage.eircom.ie/~carers.
You may wish to clarify the difference between a carer and a volunteer, if the children mention both as carers. A carer generally provides ongoing and mainly full-time care (average of 47 hours per week) to one person whereas a volunteer, who generally belongs to an organisation, gives up some of his/her free time each week to visit an older person, provide entertainment for older people and/or provide opportunities for social contact for older people.
You can find the details for this activity in the Online activities, in Have a go, Activity 6, which presents the pupils with a problem - the design of Mary's house is no longer suitable. Depending on your class, either before or after they start the design, discuss and/or provide them with the following standard do’s and don’ts for houses for older people. You can write these on the blackboard or print a copy for each child, or you can elicit these recommendations from the children.
This lesson provides opportunities for many cross-curricular activities and links directly to the curriculum for primary schools as follows:
| SPHE | Myself and the wider world | Developing citizenship |
| Science | Environmental awareness and care | Caring
for the environment |
The key questions for this lesson include: