Diseño del sistema de drenaje y subdrenaje

Consultations were carried out with two older women in the community, in their late seventies and early eighties, whom the manager of the centre thought would benefit from becoming members. One lived almost beside the centre. Both were widowed and both lived alone.

As with so many of the older people consulted, these older people were very insistent that they were content to stay at home and did not wish to participate in activities that held no real appeal for them. They did not feel lonely or isolated; both had the support of family and neighbours, and both found great comfort in their faith.

In the view of one person, those older people who used the social club were probably lonely or depressed, or had no support from their families.

7.4 Consultations with Family Carers

The one family carer spoken to in this social club reinforced many of the important points already made by other family carers. She aptly summed up her views of the club:

‘She is so happy. She loves the outings, the picnics, being a Help Line volunteer at the age of 86. She has been on many holidays – copes with her pains and keeps her from dwelling on them. The centre has made her a woman of the world.’

7.5 Consultations with Service Providers

This social club is fundamentally different from the other centres in the study. Its philosophy is to constantly challenge and push back the classic ‘boundaries’ of old age by facilitating its ninety members (ranging in age from mid-fifties to mid- nineties) to demonstrate that ‘there is no age at which expression of activity and emotions are supposed to cease’. There are numerous examples of this

philosophy in action but one in particular is that in 1999, in association with the European Network of Older Volunteers, this social club hosted a European conference in Ireland entitled Towards Social Inclusion: The Contribution of Older People. The aim of the conference was to improve knowledge of social exclusion among older people in both urban and rural Europe, and to promote the actions of the Social Club members in combating isolation and exclusion. The conference played host to over 170 delegates from 17 countries and the entire event was organised and run by the members of the social club themselves.

The manager of the centre described the members:

‘They are never afraid of a challenge, breaking down barriers and giving back to the community. They are very enthusiastic about volunteering for projects and eager to participate. They are not only extremely active, but show an enormous passion for learning and a willingness to help others.’

The service providers believed strongly that the social club confers tangible and measurable health benefits on the older people attending. Apart from their own observations regarding low levels of depression and high levels of physical energy and enthusiasm among the members, the service providers quote the local general practitioner who has noticed a real decline in the surgery attendance of these older people.

Without exception, the physical environment of the social club (in terms of the building structure, the space and other facilities) is by far the poorest of the fifteen centres visited. Several of the service providers commented that the building is difficult to heat in winter and to keep cool in summer. The resource centre has to double as a project office while in-house programmes such as the Women’s Health Initiative and keep fit can only cater for a maximum of 35 people, even though there are many more members wishing to join. Service providers and the members themselves look forward to the day when they will have a spacious designated building.

The social club, which is managed by the members and supported by a manager and three project co-ordinators, has no core funding. It gathers its funding from a wide mixture of both voluntary and statutory sources, including fundraising by the members, statutory support for specific projects and lottery funds. For example, in the last few years the club has received a government grant for computer equipment and training, a county council arts grant, a health board grant for remotely monitored alarm systems and a Millennium Recognition Award for a transport project. The club is actively administering a Social Economy project and is hoping to start up a laundry service on a commercial basis.

For the service providers and members of this facility, much of the energy that they would like to donate to their projects and activities is being diverted towards fundraising, which they described as becoming more and more difficult all the time. They speak about operating all the time ‘from hand to mouth’.

7.5.1 Social Activities Provided

The range of activities in the social club is very diverse. The ethos here is to not only provide a medium through which the abilities, skills and experiences of the members can find expression, but also to encourage the older people to give something back to the wider community. The members of this group, therefore, are involved not only in the conventional programmes of an active retirement group such as a choir, drama, creative dancing and keep fit, but also in community projects. For instance, they operate the Senior Help Line, the mentoring

programme for adult students in out-reach education and also a knitting tuition programme in local primary schools. All these activities give something back to the community and show a willingness to help others.

Part of the activity programme involves linking up with other national and international organisations, including the National Senior Citizens Parliament, similar organisations in France, Italy, Spain, and Finland, the European Network of Older Volunteers and various committees at EU level. As one of the project managers explained:

‘We nourish independence, choice and responsibility. Our members are encouraged in public policy and issue press releases on policy documents. We have a strong democratic element with full discussion on everything.’ 134

7.5.2 Projects

At any one time, with the support of project co-ordinators, the members of the social club are running a number of different projects. One current project has been funded under the Department of Enterprise’s CAIT (Community Application of Information Technology) programme. This programme was introduced, in association with the Information Society Commission, to encourage ‘late adopters’ such as older people, to use and become familiar with new technologies in their everyday lives. The project co-ordinators report that the members have embraced this project with enormous enthusiasm.

Through a number of different project strands, including their intergenerational schools project (which involves working with local primary school children) and their ‘mentoring scheme’ (with adult students in out-reach programmes), the older members of this social club are successfully mastering the skills of word processing, spreadsheets, the Internet and e-mailing, and the techniques involved in creating graphics for presentations and reports, as well as the use of scanners, digital cameras and web-cams.

7.5.3 Transport

In common with several other service providers, the manager of the social club described lack of transport in rural areas as a huge problem. For some time, the members of the club were very aware that older people in the community were unable to attend the club simply through lack of appropriate transport. And so they formed a fundraising committee whose purpose was to purchase a 16-seater minibus with a hydraulic lift and capacity for three wheelchairs. For this club, with such an active programme, having its own transport is essential.

7.5.4 Personal Care (Hair-care, Baths/Showers, Chiropody)

The social club does not offer a hairdressing service at present. The manager hopes to consider it, if and when more space is available. At the moment it is not regarded as a priority service, either by the service providers or the members of the club who were consulted for this study.

The club does offer some care services – a chiropodist visits one day a month and the service is always heavily booked – and it is actively planning a laundry

service. The service providers would consider offering physiotherapy if more space were available but not a shower/bath service. There is currently no demand for this service and this was confirmed during consultations with the members.

7.6 Consultations with PHNs

Perhaps because this centre is principally an active social club, with very little of the caring service as understood and offered in the other centres, the two PHNs consulted here were actually visiting for the first time. Everybody involved in the study agreed that the low demand for traditional caring services was an excellent endorsement of the social club’s policies.