940 of the 9,288 people living in Portarlington in April 2022 were aged 65 or over (10.1%). The town is a town on the River Barrow that straddles Laois and Offaly. The census records 469 unpaid carers in the town, 5.0% of the population, and 2,281 people (24.6%) with a disability. The older population of County Laois stands at 11,978, 13.0% of everyone living in the county, and it grew 24.7% in six years. 24.7% of people aged 65 and over in private households in County Laois live alone (2,835 people), in line with the national 25.9%.
The Midlands counties of Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath share one Integrated Health Area within HSE Dublin and Midlands. MIDOC, the Midlands out-of-hours GP service, runs posts in Mullingar, Athlone, Tullamore, Portlaoise, Edenderry and Longford. In practice a provider here works with the HSE Home Support Office in Laois, at St Vincent's Community Nursing Unit, Mountmellick R32 HK85, telephone 057 935 9575. We found 3 home care provider offices listed in County Laois, from 3 names. County providers on the list include Bluebird Care, Caremark and Connected Health. A late carer can mean calls from several households at once, and Hettie can take them while the carer keeps driving.
For hospital discharges the closest acute sites on the HSE list are Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise and Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore. Specialist palliative services for families here start with Laois and Offaly Community Specialist Palliative Care Team. Many Midlands agencies cover two or three counties from one office, and a single after-hours number avoids a separate on-call arrangement in each. Midlands towns sit between Dublin and the west, so the family who ring an agency at night may be calling from another part of the country.