When You Call To The House, You Think It Is Just The Dinner You Are Bringing But That Is Only Part Of It

Derrick Lynch

When the first tranche of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were announced, it had a major impact on numerous strands of society as people tried to adjust to what was being termed ‘our new normal’.

For the older members of the community, it meant being advised to cocoon in order to minimise the risk of transmitting the virus with a high proportion of those affected falling into the over-70’s category.

It also meant that facilities like the Clarecare Daycare Centre in Ennistymon were forced to close as their clients were no longer able to travel for their weekly day out, but plans were quickly set in motion to take the Daycare Centre on tour.

In just a matter of days a mobile meals service was established to provide hot dinners and much more to the homes of those elderly people to replace that social outlet. That service has seen the Daycare staff deliver over 150 meals per week to clients all over the West and North Clare area with that figure set to grow even further as word of the service spreads.

Lesley Coote-Dowling is the Daycentre Supervisor and she outlined how the service is about much more than a simple food delivery.

“When you call to the house, you think it is just the dinner you are bringing but that is only part of it. You land to the door and they are waiting for you with the knife and fork ready and the glass of milk already poured on the table. If we are five minutes late, they are ringing us to know where we are. They have all the news for us then from whoever they were talking to on the phone and passing messages on to us to bring to the next person. We also have clients who don’t take up the meal offer as they are content to stay cooking themselves but we still check in with them to see how they are getting on and have that chat. We have quizzes for them to do and they have until the end of the week to gather all the answers. My phone could often ring at 7pm with someone asking me who was the fourth President of Ireland and you’d be telling them they have to wait until Friday to see if they were right. We have arts and craft for them to complete also and when this is all over we are going to get them all put onto a canvas to display what they did while in isolation. They really enjoy the company for even a few minutes to have that interaction because they may not see anyone else for the rest of that day” she noted.

That social element was evident just last week as a major milestone for one of their clients was marked. Along with her usual dinner delivery, Mary Doorty was able to celebrate turning 93 years old as staff delivered a special birthday cake to her home in Kilfenora. Lesley feels the social contact is something that people are missing in these tough times.

She said: “They are all telling us how much they miss the fun they would have and they miss each other too. A lot of them would have grown up together and been great friends so they miss that element too. They had great fun from the minute they got on the bus in the morning until they went home in the evening and they really lived for that one day per week when they could have that. They are really understanding of the reasons why they have to isolate and they are so resilient. I had one woman say to me last week that while she misses everyone she knows by staying apart that we are not going to lose any of our friends”.

Catriona Lavelle, Clarecare’s CEO, says everyone is working to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are cared for.

“Clarecare represents the whole spectrum of the family from the youngest to the eldest. At the moment, we have our homecare staff looking after 400 older people in our community and they have been brilliant. They go to visit families and in reality they provide much more than homecare. We also have our staff in Cuan an Chlair, Ennistymon and Killaloe taking care of our daycare clients. Daycare has been closed for a while now so we have had to be creative and reactive. In Ennistymon and Cuan, we are delivering hot meals to our clients and the numbers are growing steadily over the last few weeks. We also get great backing from our funders and we would not be able to do it without them. We are all in this together and Clarecare is also playing its part as part of the community response team set up by Clare County Council so we are always here to help and support the people of Clare in any way that we can” she said.