Blessington is a west Wicklow town beside the Blessington Lakes. The 2022 census counted 5,611 people there, 546 of them (9.7%) aged 65 or over. The older population of County Wicklow stands at 23,661, 15.2% of everyone living in the county, and it grew 27.4% in six years. 23.3% of people aged 65 and over in private households in County Wicklow live alone (5,242 people), 2.6 points below the national 25.9%. In the town itself, 1,154 people (20.6%) reported a disability and 317 (5.6%) gave regular unpaid care to someone.
This part of the country comes under HSE Dublin and Midlands, within the Kildare, West Wicklow area. A provider here deals with the HSE Home Support Office for Dublin South City, South West and West (also Kildare and West Wicklow), which you can reach on 01 921 4718 at Junction House, Kilnamanagh-Tymon Primary Care Centre, Airton Road, Tallaght D24 CF75. At night the GP out-of-hours service is KDOC. There are 9 home care provider offices on our County Wicklow list, from 9 different names. Names on our list for the county include Dovida, Caremark, Comfort Keepers, Arklow and Southern Wicklow Home Care and Bray Home Care Service. Hettie writes up each call so the next morning's coordinator sees who rang, why, and what was done.
On the HSE hospital list, the acute sites for the area are Tallaght University Hospital and Naas General Hospital. Specialist palliative support is available through Kildare and West Wicklow Community Specialist Palliative Care Team and St Brigid's Hospice Kildare. Naas is 10 km away in a straight line, and Sallins is 12 km, so a coordinator can think of the three as one patch. A line that sorts calls overnight protects the staff you already have.