National Activity Updates from 2024
This year the Caru Programme Team have been busy attending various engagements with stakeholders across the country, to tell them all about the valuable work going on at Caru.
Our CEO, Paula O’Reilly was invited to speak at the Nursing Home’s Ireland Conference in the Lyrath Estate in Kilkenny on the 19th September. Paula spoke about Caru to the audience members under the event’s theme Meeting the Challenges of Caring, Together.
Director of Healthcare at Irish Hospice Foundation, Siobhán Murphy, had the opportunity to meet with the HIQA regulation team to present and discuss how the Caru Programme aligns with HIQA’s National Standards.
Following the success of this meeting, Siobhán presented to over 400 attendees at HIQA’s conference in Croke Park on 22nd October, where the organization celebrated 15 years regulating nursing homes in Ireland.
Three of our Caru Regional Leads, Sarah McDonald, Clodagh McGuinness, and Mary Fahy attended the Northwest Hospice Palliative Care Conference in Sligo, where they exhibited a stand showcasing information Caru and Irish Hospice Foundation. The team also presented their poster on Caru to the conferences judges under the theme ‘Palliative Care in an In-Patient Setting – Acute Hospitals, Residential Care, Community Hospitals and Specialist Palliative Care In-Patient Units’
The Caru team successfully submitted a poster to the Irish Gerontology Society Conference that took place in Athlone. The team’s poster was based on an evaluation of the Caru Programme and centred around preliminary findings. The Programme Manager presented the poster to a team of judges and, although we did not win, the poster received great engagement and encouraged conversation throughout the day. <<Take a closer look at the poster.>>
Our Regional Lead, Janet Tobin-Martin had the opportunity to present to South East Technology University’s nursing course about Caru, and it’s impact on communication around advance care planning, the National End of Life Survey and Time to Talk to second-year nursing students as part of their Community Care module. It’s exciting to see the next generation of healthcare professionals ready to make a meaningful impact!
In our last newsletter, we were delighted to announce that we were shortlisted for the Age Friendly Ireland Recognition and Achievement Awards 2024 for the project submission which explored Caru, advanced care planning and the Bereavement Support Line. Unfortunately, we did not win the award, however, we were absolutely thrilled to be considered as worthy among the other twenty-four nominees, and shortlisted from 170 submissions. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to welcome the judges to Irish Hospice Foundation Offices where they met with staff and residents from Greystones Nursing Home, Laurel Lodge Nursing Home, and Peamount Healthcare.
Regional Lead Liz Jacques was invited to the recent Galway Hospice Clinical Education Day for nursing home nurses on 21st October. The event was a success, with twenty-eight local staff nurses in attendance from across county Galway and a few from Mayo and Roscommon. Many thanks to Nuala and Vanessa from Galway Hospice for including the Caru Programme in the event – it was a great opportunity to meet with staff nurses and explain the Caru Programme as we further roll-out activity in county Galway.
The Irish Hospice Foundation Caru Programme Manager presented to attendees at the St James’ Hospital Foundation Course in Gerontology about Caru, and how it meets the challenges of communication, advanced care planning and grief. The presentation was delivered to sixty nurses whom deliver direct care to residents in nursing homes across the country.
The IHF/Caru Healthcare team, were also delighted to be invited to St James’s Hospital End-of-Life Skills fair on the 21st of November. Staff from all over the hospital were given samples of our resources and it was great to speak to some St James’s affiliated nursing home staff about the Caru Programme.
CHO7 Regional Lead, Sarah McDonald attended an information morning hosted by Maynooth Community Unit to introduce Caru and Think Ahead to staff from all disciplines and residents’ families, it provided a great opportunity to foster understanding and engagement from all.
CHO8 Regional Lead, Sharon O’Brien was invited to a Remembrance Mass hosted by Abbeyleix CNU on the 29th November. Sharon spoke about Caru and the Bereavement Support Line and hosted a stand there for interested families.
The evening ended with an array of colourful balloons representing the memory of their loved family members.
The purple gift bag holds crocus bulbs and a memory quote given to families in memory of their loved ones who have died.
Credit to Anne Fitzpatrick who is the only Caru Group member in Abbeyleix and is responsible for amazing work there regarding Caru.
