Mairead Mackle - Homecare Independent Living

Year: 2011

Category: Industry

Sector: health

Homecare Independent Living was established by Mairead and Gerald Mackle in 1995 and, over the past 16 years, has become one of the leading private Community Healthcare providers in Ireland.

People who need care prefer to be at home and Homecare Independent Living offers a unique mix of integrated services, including health and social care, housing, and support services.

Quality, innovation and investment in people are at the core of the business and the company takes pride in the continuing development of specialist-care teams that provide a range of services to the elderly, disabled and vulnerable in the community within the comfort and familiarity of their own homes.

Homecare Independent Living is committed to ensuring that all employees demonstrate the highest standards of honesty, integrity and competence in their roles.

Extensive training and mentoring is provided to all staff, ensuring that client needs can be satisfactorily met – an initiative that is reflected in the Investors in People and Excellence Through People awards.

Homecare Independent Living has grown rapidly since 1995.

From its humble beginnings of 20,000 hours in its first year, the company is now on target to deliver over 1 million hours of care, support and housing-related services across Ireland this year and currently employs more than 700 staff.

Customers: Homecare Independent Living clients are drawn from the general public, the HSE and the Healthcare Trusts in Northern Ireland.

The company empowers and enables people of all abilities to engage in a level of independent living that would not otherwise be possible.

These include members of the older generation; children and adults with physical disabilities, mental health problems, and learning disabilities; Dementia and Alzheimer’s sufferers; post-operative patients; people who experience housing stress; and those who are vulnerable in the community, Products/services: Homecare’s specialist teams provide a wide range of services, including: domiciliary care; dementia services; housing and support services; continuing care, palliative care, and intermediate care.

Mackle and her team have also introduced Peripatetic Services, in partnership with Healthcare and Housing providers, in response to a clearly identified increase in the number of vulnerable people seeking to access housing and care and support services.

Innovation runs throughout the company and the many exciting developments in home-based technology within the healthcare sector allow the company to excel with new and innovative service solutions such as the Rapid Response service, established to counteract the problem of bed-blocking in hospitals.

This service manages the transition from hospital to home as efficiently as possible.

The company also has plans to create a rural retirement village which incorporates all the modern technologies of independent living, in tandem with an energy efficient house design.

What role does CSR play in your business strategy? Homecare’s Charity committee (ICARE) plays a huge and important role.

We focus on projects that are family friendly and where all ages can be part of.

We also support the Armagh City FC - Ladies and juvenile teams – and have donated whiteboards and participate in health and safety programmes for local schools.

What are the biggest challenges you face now? Government Cutbacks, limited resources and increased fuel costs are all big challenges we face to stay ahead in a changing climate.

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