Census 2022 puts Westport, a Mayo town on Clew Bay, popular with visitors, at 6,872 people. Of those, 1,358 (19.8%) are aged 65 and over, close to the county average. The census counts 7,173 people aged 65 or over living alone in County Mayo, which is 28.2% of that age group in private households. County Mayo had 19.3% more people aged 65 or over in 2022 than in 2016 (22,909 then, 27,328 now), 2.5 points below the national rise of 22%. The census records 393 unpaid carers in the town, 5.7% of the population, and 1,521 people (22.1%) with a disability.
The HSE places the town in HSE West and North West (Mayo area). Families and providers seeking HSE home support hours deal with the HSE Home Support Office in Mayo (St Mary's HQ, Castlebar F23 HP58, telephone 094 904 9177). The out-of-hours GP service for the area is Westdoc. The county list we built has 11 offices from 10 home care providers. The better-known names on the county list are Dovida, Connected Health, RHS Home Care, Atlantic Care and Communicare Healthcare. A family who rings and gets a clear answer remembers the agency that picked up.
Hospital discharges in this area tend to come from Mayo University Hospital. Specialist palliative care comes through Mayo Community Specialist Palliative Care Team and Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation. Hettie writes up each call in plain language, so the morning coordinator reads a night's calls in a few minutes. The same rota questions come up every evening: is the carer still coming, can we move tomorrow, has the delivery arrived. Some callers in County Mayo may prefer Irish, especially around Iorras and Acaill. Mention it when you talk to us about the service.