Limerick Person of the Month: Honour for ‘unsung heroes’ of the Covid-19 pandemic

A GROUP of people who are considered to be the “unsung heroes” of the health service during the Covid-19 pandemic, have been named the Limerick Persons of the Month.

HSE Mid West Community Healthcare’s Home Support Service predominantly serves people in the community aged over 65 years of age, and helps them to live longer in their own homes.

Its dedicated team of health care support assistants (HCSAs) support clients with everyday tasks and assist them to continue living independently.

“The three of us are here today but this is being accepted on behalf of the entire HSE team who provide community support to families to assist them in maintaining their family member at home,” commented Emma Doyle, Home Care Package Coordinator.

“We also deal with hospital discharges, provide support for hospital step-down and we also provide support for hospital avoidance,” she added.

Emma was accompanied at the award presentation at the Clayton Hotel by Catherine Gleeson, Home Help Coordinator, and Nancy Barrett, Health Care Support Assistant.

There are 568 HCSAs directly employed by the HSE in the Mid West region of Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary, with 289 of those based in Limerick.

They are the front-line staff of the Community Older Person’s services and together with Home Support Agencies who provide services on behalf of the HSE they supported nearly over 4,600 people throughout the Mid West last year, almost 1,800 of those in Limerick. The team also works with other community supports such as the meals on wheels and public health nursing services.

“The last two years with Covid have been a massive challenge in the community,” Catherine Gleeson pointed out.

“There is a lot of emphasis put on the frontline staff in the hospitals but the assistants are the frontline staff who are out in the community who are both vulnerable themselves and with vulnerable clients. It was a time when older people, as well as being vulnerable, were terrified,” she explained.

 “There is no doubt about it, only for the particular services, older people would not be able to stay at home. The client's first choice is they want to be in their home environment, they want to be at home,” Catherine pointed out. 

The health care support assistants have a different routine to suit each individual’s needs. They do the practical things like the shopping and cooking, assisting the client with their personal care such as washing or going to the bathroom, and they assist them with their medications.  

Limerick Person of the Month: Award for group who brought a fresh energy to city centre

As well as providing this practical assistance and support, HCSAs also found themselves, during the pandemic, providing a much valued listening ear and reassurance to vulnerable older people as some of them had no family members to support them.

These HCSAs are lone workers, who continue to look after their clients without the structures and support of hospital or nursing home settings.

They continued to look after people who had contracted Covid, and went “above and beyond the call of duty”, Catherine said, even during periods when there were high levels of the disease in the community, prior to the rollout of the vaccination programme.

“For some of the clients, we were the only person they would see in a day,” explained Nancy Barrett, Health Care Support Assistant,

“One man I go to is 98. First thing I do is go into the room to check on him and have a chat. I come out then and put on the fire. I give him his wash, get him up, get him dressed and get him out to his sitting area and he has his breakfast. You’d be chatting away and when you’d be going he’d say, ‘Oh, I never told you this’, so you wouldn’t go.”

According to Nancy, the clients were initially “terrified” of Covid.

“As time went on they became less so.”

All the time the assistants are chatting to the client, they are also doing their work as they have specific times to be in and out of houses as they have their next client to attend to. Every client has their own individual care plan.

Nancy found herself assisting a palliative care client during the pandemic.

“Her wish was to stay at home,” Catherine explained of the client.

“She had a small family and she died at a time when there were only 10 allowed at a funeral and Nancy was one of the people she listed, on her deathbed, to attend. She asked for Nancy to attend,” said Catherine.

“That, to me, says it all!”

The Limerick Person of the Month Awards are supported by the Limerick Leader, Southern and The Clayton Hotel.