More than one fifth of all adults (18-65+ year olds) are planning to cocoon for the foreseeable future, according to the annual Home and Community Care Ireland (HCCI) survey.
Home care help was identified by 15% of all adults planning to do so as a support that would make cocooning feasible longer term. This increases to 23% for 65+ year olds.
Home deliveries of shopping (62% for all adults, 72% for 65+ year olds), virtual social meetings with family or friends (61% for all adults, 66% for 65+ year olds), access to safe quality of life services such as hairdressing (46% for all adults, 55% for 65+ year olds), virtual medical consultations (43% for all adults, 50% for 65+ year olds) and home deliveries of medication (41% for all adults, 45% for 65+ year olds) were also identified as important cocooning supports.
The findings also reveal that the average financial contribution people are willing to pay to fund a home care package enabling them to remain living in their own home is 25% – an increase of 6% from last year’s survey findings. 65+ year olds would be willing to contribute the same amount, up 4% from the 2019 survey fndings.
When asked ‘What do you most value in your community’ most respondents (61%) identified ‘shops’, while ‘sense of community’ was also selected by a majority (52%) up 5% from last year.
For those aged 65+ ‘chatting to neighbours’ was identified as most valued at 65% up from 62% in 2019, shops (57% up from 44% in 2019) and sense of community (54%).
