St Brendan's Village,
Mulranny, Co Mayo
High Support Sheltered
Housing Unit
High Support Unit
1998 was the realisation of a dream when the final part
of the Mulranny St. Brendan's Village Development became a
reality - the St Brendan's High Support Unit catering for up
to 30 people.
When people can no longer live in our community or in our
low support sheltered housing, even with the support of the
electronic alarms and our caretaker nuns, they still have
the opportunity to stay locally no matter how frail or
disabled, thanks to our high support St. Brendan's
Unit.
This Unit, for people with high support needs, has 15
double rooms, a day room, an oratory, a dining area and
showers, baths and lavatories designed for use by disabled
people. A full range of medical and care services is
provided by visiting professionals who use a consulting room
in the Scheme as their base. In addition to allowing people
to live locally, the scheme has aided rural regeneration. It
is now the biggest local employer.
Care of the Elderly
Communities are involved to different degrees in the
services they provide. In Mulranny we provide a continuum of
care, providing a greater degree of care as is needed, so
preserving personal independence, dignity and personal
autonomy as much as possible.
Our St. Brendan's Village Project is a working model for
the care of older and disabled people in their own
community, which is gaining international recognition as a
model suitable for replication into the future. It has been
presented as such in Clontarf Castle by the Irish Government
at an EU Policy Maker's Conference, at an international
Conference on the Care of Older People at Home in Wales, and
in Denmark. It is the subject of many publications in
several languages.
Funding
Yet unless initiatives such as Mulranny get some ongoing
care support then they definitely won't be replicated, as
they should be. There should be more of a balance between
the millions of pounds pumped into keeping people in profit
driven and non community nursing homes, and the total lack
of ongoing care support for our initiative. We rely heavily
on voluntary fundraising so that we can continue to provide
our service of complete care in the community.
Rural Regeneration
Yet it is only right that we do this. It is only right
also that every community think about doing this in their
own area. It's very much a two-way process and a recipe for
rural regeneration also.
The St. Brendan's Village Project has been a powerful
tool for rural regeneration. Keeping people from having to
leave and returning them to their own area has a massive
humanitarian spin-off for those people who stay or are
returned, but it has also helped us regenerate our village
.
Our St. Brendan's Village Project is now the biggest
local employer in our village. Thanks to those older folk
who have returned, we now can provide welcome employment so
that many of our young people needn't leave any more to find
employment.
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