Healthy Age Friendly Homes: Pilot Evaluation

The Irish government’s Healthy Age Friendly Homes (HAFH) programme represents a new way of working to support ageing in place, thereby addressing the strategic objectives set out in the Programme for Government and its vision for an Age Friendly Ireland.

With the fastest growing ageing population in the EU, they have trialled a new support co-ordination service designed to enable older people to remain living in their own homes and to reduce the need to transfer to long-term residential care.

This evaluation of nine local authority ‘pilot’ sites in Ireland found that having a coordinator ensured access to information and signposting to services that then made a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of older people. This included rightsizing, improved repairs and adaptations, use of technology, access to social support and community networks, and health improvements. At a strategic level, the report recommends scaling up the programme so that the HAFH programme exists in every local authority.