HSE-Funded Assisted Living

You may be entitled to a State-funded assisted living or homecare service if you or a loved one are in need of support to live independently at home and to do the everyday tasks you want to do.

Irish Wheelchair Association is the biggest provider of HSE-funded assisted living services for people with disabilities in Ireland. We provide a flexible service across the country carried out by skilled frontline healthcare workers called personal assistants.

How does it work?

Your local HSE health centre, hospital, or Irish Wheelchair Association service can advise or support you on how to apply for an assisted living service. The number of hours of support you are allocated is agreed between you and the HSE.

On receiving the service, personal assistants will be assigned to come to your home each day or week for a number of hours allocated by the HSE to support you with your individual needs. This may include for example, assisting with personal care, household chores, supporting you during study or work, playing sports, pursuing your hobbies or socialising.

If you are new to the service, it can take a bit of time to work out how you would like to use your personal assistant hours, but we are there to support you through this transition and to help you in deciding how to make the most of the service. Our friendly and dedicated personal assistants will work with you to support your routine.

Some of the tasks carried out by our personal assistants include help getting ready in the morning or getting to bed at night, personal care, carrying out household chores, cooking, support accessing employment, education or socialising.

There are three types of Assisted Living Service packages:

1. Supported package: Irish Wheelchair Association manages the service for you, including recruiting and managing your personal assistants.
2. Self-directed package: You manage your service with support from Irish Wheelchair Association. This includes, recruiting your personal assistant, organising their weekly roster, returning their timesheet and arranging holiday cover.
3. A blended services which can be designed to suit your individual support needs.

Irish Wheelchair Association provides 1.3 million hours of Assisted Living Service to over 2,200 adults and children every year and is the biggest assisted living provider in the country for people with physical disabilities.