The Chief Medical Officer has urged older people to reconnect with others just three years after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Ireland.
Within weeks of that first case, schools were closed and people were largely ordered to stay at home and away from other people to prevent the virus from spreading, and hospitals were overwhelmed. The restrictions continued till January of last year.
In an open letter to older adults in Ireland, as part of the ‘Hello Again World’ multimedia campaign, Professor Breda Smith addressed the isolation and loneliness experienced by older people during the pandemic, saying: “If you haven’t yet returned to doing the things that you love, I am encouraging you to do so now,” reports RTE.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One programme, Ms Smyth said the letter is ‘”nspired by the presence of loneliness”, reports RTE.
Prof Smyth said the number of people in Ireland who reported feeling lonely all or most of the time had doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell people that if they haven’t already returned to doing things you love doing, I’m encouraging you to do so now,” she said, reports RTE.
Prof Smyth said all recommendations made during the pandemic were based on the best advice at the time to keep people safe.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has promised a “full public inquiry” into Ireland’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Leo Varadkar said it would include “what happened in nursing homes, what happened in hospitals, it will include what happened in the community, and the wider social and economic response,” reports RTE.
Mr Varadkar said it will always be the case that things look differently “with hindsight”.
The vast majority of people who died of Covid in Ireland were elderly and people who had underlying medical conditions. And that is how viruses work,” he said, reports RTE.
He said that out of respect for the thousands of people whose nurses and relatives in hospitals should not be under the impression that all those deaths were preventable, but added that some of them “might have been”, reports RTE.
He was responding to Ontu leader Pedar Tobin, who said that “disastrous mistakes were made during Covid”. Mr Toibin said there are 44 families who are filing lawsuits against the state.
It comes as the health service executive said more than a quarter of Ireland’s Covid deaths have occurred in care homes.
Dr Ronan Collins, consultant geriatrician and HSE National Clinical Lead in Stroke, said his experience is that older people are not resuming their normal activities following the pandemic.
But, he said, this, along with the ‘Hello Again World’ campaign launched by the Department of Health, suggests there are still people who have not re-connected with society.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said: “II think most people have got back to life and were eager to get back to life. It should be remembered that loneliness and, for example, getting back to life is not just an age-related issue,” reports RTE.
Dr Collins said the conversation needed to broaden to the topic of loneliness in general and how to re-connect to society.
“There are strong health benefits for both older and younger people by engaging with one or other intergenerationally, and I think that is a challenge for our society,” he said, reports RTE.
Dr Collins said that from a clinical perspective, he did not think there was a need for an inquiry into how care homes are run.
“I think we’ve done that already. An expert panel was set up in 2021 to look at the issue of Covid in nursing homes and the very high mortality, and indeed the problems that were readily identified, through research and through experience, early on,” reports RTE.
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