Home Instead, Ireland’s largest private provider of home care services, this week announced the creation of 60 jobs in Galway.
The care company, which already has a 4,000-strong caregiver team working across every county in Ireland, is recruiting for 60 additional caregivers in Galway, as part of its recruitment of 1,000 additional caregivers, who will be hired across the country. Home Instead delivers essential home care to almost 7,000 clients across every county in Ireland, and has been building its caregiving team over the past 12 months, with 1,000 new roles also announced in 2020.
Home Instead’s caregivers deliver a range of relationship-based non-medical care services to older people. In addition to helping keep older people safe and well, such care services can also facilitate early hospital discharge, freeing up vital capacity, or can help prevent hospitalisations in the first instance. “Building the Caregiving Workforce Our Aging World Needs”, a new Global Workforce Report commissioned by Home Instead with the Global Coalition on Aging, highlights the urgency and necessity of expanding and professionalising the caregiving workforce around the world.
The increasing demand for caregiving of older people represents a challenge never before experienced, with the global population aged 65 and older set to more than double by 2050.
Commenting on the announcement, Suzanne Ryan, General Manager of Home Instead in Galway said the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital support that caregivers provide to their clients and the link they provided to the outside world to those they were caring for.
“We are tremendously proud of our caregiving team, and the work that they do to keep older people safe and well. We know that where possible older people want to continue living independent lives in their own homes and in their own communities,”she said.
“In the years ahead, Ireland, like so many countries, will face the challenge of an ageing population. Home care can play an increasingly important role in providing care to our oldest and most vulnerable citizens.
“For the vast majority of older people, ageing at home has better health outcomes, is less expensive than institutional care, and can help prevent unnecessary or premature admission to long-term residential care,” she concluded.
Chief Operating Officer of Home Instead, Shane Jennings said that the Global Workforce Report has highlighted the acute —and expanding—shortage of professional care workers around the world, and estimates that across the OECD countries, the number of elder care workers will need to increase by 60% by 2040 to maintain the current ratio of caregivers to older people.
“The number of people over the age of 65 in Ireland is expected to reach 1.4 million by 2040, with even greater growth expected in the population aged 80 and over. This change has the potential for the biggest impact on health services overall,” he said.
“As life expectancy increases in Ireland, so too does the need for quality home care – and quality home carers, the new jobs we are creating will help us to build our caregiving workforce of the future, and is also testament to the hard work of our Caregivers and team in Galway and in our 25 offices around the country
“We’re inviting applications from people with an interest in care, to join us in helping older people live independent lives in their own homes. The work is local, the jobs are sustainable and there are opportunities available in rural and urban areas around the country,” he concluded.
Home Instead’s reward and remuneration package includes competitive rates of pay with higher rates at weekends, ongoing professional development opportunities, 24-hour support and local benefit schemes to suit local carer needs nationwide.
