SAGE – Support and Advocacy Service for Older People aims to deliver a representative advocacy service to older people. Its mission is ‘to promote and protect the rights, freedoms and dignity of older people by developing support and advocacy services wherever ageing poses a challenge for individuals’.
SAGE provides information and advice on how to access independent support and advocacy services.
The mission of Sage is “to promote and protect the rights, freedoms and dignity of older people by developing support and advocacy services wherever ageing poses a challenge for individuals.”
The service was originally initiated by the HSE in response a television programme in 2005 exposing extremely poor care in the Leas Cross Nursing Home in Dublin. It was then developed under the governance of Third Age Ireland, with funding from the Health Service Executive and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The development plans for the service require it to be available to all vulnerable older people in all care settings and in the transition between them. Sage Advocacy clg was established in September 2017 and on March 1st 2018 it assumed full responsibility for the governance and future development of the service. On July 1st 2018 the patient advocacy services, previously provided by Patient Focus, moved to Sage Advocacy which is now a support and advocacy service for vulnerable adults, older people and healthcare patients.
As well as carrying out individual casework with clients, Sage is committed to addressing systemic issues and to the development of quality standards for support and advocacy for older people through public consultation.
Previous casework undertaken on behalf of Sage’s clients ranges from support with Fair Deal applications and other financial issues to support with concerns about continence and medication. As well as conducting one-to-one casework, Sage aims to strengthen the natural support structures of family and community in partnership with relevant professionals and local development organisations. It is committed to building Circles of Support so that older people can, wherever possible, live and die in the place of their choice and be supported as they experience transitions between home, hospital, nursing home or hospice.
The full range of Sage’s advocacy services is as follows:
- Supporting people to return home from hospitals and nursing homes in accordance with their Supporting decision-making and people’s capacity to make decisions about their own lives
- Advocating for adequate home care and support to enable people live, and die, in the place of their choice.
- Providing patient advocacy to people who have complaints about healthcare and with any subsequent internal or external reviews or
- Advocating with and for people with intellectual disabilities to develop a life with activities which are meaningful for them as they move from an institution to the community.
- Challenging unnecessary restrictions on people’s liberties in acute and congregated care settings and the use of convenience medication and incontinence wear.
- Promoting public and professional awareness of resources for self-advocacy such as ‘Think Ahead’ and organising workshops on capacity and decision making, enduring power of attorney and advance healthcare directives.
- Promoting advocacy champions within congregated care settings and supporting them when complex issues arise and independent advocacy is required.
- Assisting people to maintain control of their income, benefits or property when others seek to take advantage of them and making contact with other professionals on their behalf to assist them in putting their affairs in
- Facilitating meetings of service users in residential and day care settings.
- Providing information and supporl to people who find health, social care, social protection and financial services complex and frustrating.
Sage’s Information & Advice is open from 8.00am – 10.00pm daily and is available on 1850 719 400.
For general enquiries please contact 01 536 7330.
Sage’s website can be accessed here