Planning and Design for quality of life and resilience in residential long-term care settings for older people in Ireland

Research Pillar: Healthy and Inclusive Places

Project Name/Title/Acronym: Supporting Tallaght University Hospital’s Integrated Care for Older Persons: Testing an approach to identify the common housing hazards in housing affecting older people in South Dublin

Funding Body: Meath Foundation

Project Partners: TrinityHaus, Tallaght University Hospital, BRE Trust, Age Friendly Ireland, The Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, The Housing Agency, South Dublin County Council, and Age Action.

Project Timeframe: 2021-2022

Key Output(s): Key Findings and Recommendations Report

Project Description:

Housing is critical to the health and well-being of older people and is a vital part of preventative medicine in the community. Supporting community health is central to Tallaght University Hospital’s (TUH) Integrated Care for Older Person’s Team who provide multi-disciplinary care to improve the quality and outcomes of care for older persons and their carers, and to support older people to live well in their own homes and communities.

The TUH team is part of the Integrated Care Programme for Older People (ICPOP) aimed at promoting the development of services and care pathways to improve outcomes for older people in the community. These pathways involve various aspects of the built environment including housing, which acts as critical infrastructure for the hospital and community care ecosystem. In this regard it is important to understand the impact of housing on the health of older people in the Tallaght area and the downstream consequences for TUH in terms of both preventative medicine and the direct care of older people as patients disability.

The research aims to investigate the link between common housing conditions and hazards that affect older people’s health in the South Dublin area, and their impact on TUH healthcare delivery.

Key output: This project will produce a set of Key Findings and Recommendations outlining how housing should support Tallaght University Hospital Integrated Care for Older Persons. These recommendations will include:

• Specific housing improvements/adaptations that
  a) help maintain/improve general health,
  b) targeted housing related measures that support specific aspects of integrated care, and
  c) provide supportive conditions on discharge from hospital,
• Coordinated/integrated decision-making processes around housing improvements, adaptations and housing design for a range of older people’s needs

This project will look at internal air quality therefore addressing some issues ‘Healthy environments’ and also covered issues around heating and energy conservation and thus linked with ‘Sustainable and climate responsive communities’. Through the research and engagement process adopted, the project also supported the 4th TrinityHaus pillar - Co-creation, collaboration and stakeholder engagement

Nationally, this project supports the ‘The Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme, the ‘Housing Options for Our Aging Population Policy’ and the ‘Housing for all’ plan. Internationally, it supports various UN Sustainable Development Goals as indicated below:

Contact details – for more information contact Tom Grey, tom.grey@tcd.ie