As many as one in three people who currently live in nursing homes could live at home if they received adequate support, ALONE has claimed.

The charity, which provides services for older people in need, has launched a new campaign, Home First 2015, which questions ‘why are we forcing older people out of their homes?'

It claims that while the Programme for Government, the National Positive Ageing Strategy and the HSE all support the concept of older people staying at home, ‘sufficient funds are not being invested to make it happen'.

The charity noted that currently, around one-third of people in nursing homes have low or medium dependency needs, meaning that if they received adequate support, they could live at home.

It also pointed out that the proportion of older people living in nursing homes in Ireland is 35% higher than the EU average. Meanwhile Irish people spend an average of 1.6 years longer in nursing homes than their UK counterparts.

According to ALONE, these figures show that ‘we are forcing older people into nursing homes before they need to go'. It insisted that while nursing homes provide a vital service, ‘they are not always the best answer'.

The charity is proposing that a portion of the funding set aside for the Fair Deal scheme, which helps people pay for nursing home care, should be reallocated to provide support to older people who could live at home with some level of home care.

"As a nation, we are pushing older people into nursing homes ahead of their time, while at the same time others who need additional supports are being made do without. In ALONE we strongly believe that more older people could be supported to live in the community, but most aren't being given this option," commented ALONE CEO, Sean Moynihan.

He noted that in the last five years, there has been a ‘huge decrease' in the supports available to people who want to ‘age at home'.

"Funding for home help has been cut by €1.6 million since 2011 and Housing Adaption Grants for older people have been cut by almost €30 million in the same period," Mr Moynihan said.

He emphasised that Ireland has a ‘dramatically ageing population' and he called on the Government to plan for this now.

"We need to plan accordingly now by making decisions that reflect the wishes of our older people and are more economically sound than our current system. At the moment there are very few options other than nursing home care and independent living," he added.

For more information on ALONE, click here