IFIC Ireland Spring Update

March 31, 2020

It has been a busy start to the new year for IFIC Ireland as we launched our new webinar series for 2020, signed a partnership agreement with SláinteCare and had numerous speaking engagements

Please Note, in light of the current Covid-19 pandemic and the travel restrictions in place, we regretfully inform you that the National Forum on Integrated Care in Ireland has been postponed.

For more information or to get in touch with IFIC Ireland, please contact Karen O’Connell, IFIC Ireland Co-ordinator at karenoconnell@integratedcarefoundation.org.

SláinteCare Partnership and Integration Fund Projects Learning Network

IFIC Ireland and the SláinteCare Implementation Office at the Department of Health signed a partnership agreement in February 2020 to support the implementation of a digital portal collating Integrated Care resources from across the wider IFIC network relevant for an Irish context. Our director, Prof Áine Carroll, has also been supporting the Integration Fund Projects Learning Network. Learning Network events took place on March 2nd, 3rd and 4th last at the Department of Health with presentations on project progress across the Integration Fund grantees, workshops and networking between projects to support implementation.

Find out more here!

Prof Áine Carroll speaks to the Irish Dental Association about Integrated Care

Prof Áine Carroll was featured in the December 2019/January 2020 edition of the Journal of the Irish Dental Association speaking about her role in leading the National Clinical Programmes, establishing the Integrated Care Programmes in Ireland and the continuing work of improving the integration of health and social care across the island of Ireland with the support of IFIC.

Read the interview in full here!

Making Integrated Care Happen Webinar Series

Our webinar series 2020 has hosted 2 sessions so far with fantastic interaction and feedback from our audience and speakers. The recordings and presentations are available for viewing and download here! The remaining sessions have been postponed to the autumn months and are open for registration.

Inclusion Health and understanding the Social Determinants of Health

Tuesday, 11 August 2PM GMT

Inclusion health is a service, research, and policy agenda that aims to prevent and redress health and social inequities among the most vulnerable and excluded populations. Addressing social inequalities to ensure the best health outcomes for populations at risk at the earliest possible point of intervention can help to benefit lifelong health.

Dr Sharon Lambert will outline how childhood traumatic events can impact on health outcomes throughout life. The need to design services for appropriate delivery for individuals handling trauma and the impacts of stressful and traumatic circumstances will also be explored. Prof Clíona Ní Cheallaigh will speak about her work on improving access to healthcare for some of Ireland’s most vulnerable and socially excluded populations and how integration of services should address social inclusion at its core

Role of volunteers and community development organisations as partners in the delivery of Integrated Care

Tuesday, 8 September 2PM GMT

Michelle Nelson of Sinai Health System and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto will speak about the important role that volunteers and third sector groups play as partners in delivering integrated care, Voluncaring is the work or practice of volunteers or non-statutory organizations as partners in the delivery of health programs and services. Today’s volunteers are more diverse than ever – ranging from teenagers to retirees, coming from a variety of backgrounds and bringing a multitude of professional and life experiences. What they have in common is the desire to help others. In health services, volunteers are an often under-recognized or underutilized resource that can help to meet patient and family needs. The term Voluncaring reflects people’s motivations for volunteering, the care work that many volunteers do, and the benefits derived by patients, families, clinicians and organizations.

Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) challenges the traditional deficit-based approach that tries to solve urban and rural development problems by focusing on the needs and deficiencies of individuals, neighbourhoods, towns, villages, etc. ABCD demonstrates that local assets (people, physical assets etc.) and individual strengths are key to ensure sustainable community development, and that people have a life of their own choosing. Cormac Russell of Nurture Development will provide an overview of the ABCD approach and how a strengths-based approach can benefit integration care programs.

Other Events

Our co-director, Prof Áine Carroll, has spoken about integrated care in Ireland at a number of events in the early months of 2020. First up, the HSE East Coast Area Diabetes Annual Conference took place on Saturday January 25th last. Áine spoke about the future of care for chronic disease in Ireland with an audience of General Practitioners and Practice Nurses.

On March 3rd last, as part of the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy Seminar Series 2019/2020, Áine spoke about IFIC Ireland’s work in advancing integrated care in policy and practice across Ireland.

NFICI20 Postponement

The National Forum on Integrated Care in Ireland 2020 has been postponed due to the ongoing national response to Covid-19 and advice regarding large gatherings. We are working with our event organisers and UCD to reschedule to a later date. All submissions made to date will be retained for review and we look forward to meeting you all at a safer time.

FREE Coaching Service for frontline staff dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland.

Connect a Coach was founded by Ailbhe Harrington, a Master Certified Coach and Coach Trainer and Karen Hayes an Associate Certified Coach, facilitator. The vision was to make it easy for frontline staff to connect directly and easily at a time that suited them, with professional coaches who wanted to help. It is not a counselling/therapy service, but it is a space for you to ‘exhale’, de-stress, recharge and feel more resourced. A conversation with a professional coach can enable you to focus on what’s important, gain clarity and find a way forward that works for you.

For more information and to making a booking visit their website here!

COVID-19 Resources

We’ve gathered a number of resources that are being shared by members of the IFIC Ireland family and our networks – we hope you find them useful at this time.

Resource Guide and links from the All Ireland Gerontological Nurses Association
Remotely assessing Covid-19 patients in primary care published by Trish Greenhalgh
COVID-19 anticipatory planning and information checklist for carers and people living with dementia who are cocooning developed by Advanced Nurse Practitioner’s at Tallaght University Hospital Memory Service:
People living with someone who has dementia
Tips for carers of people with dementia

University College Cork School of Nursing and Midwifery have launched a free online CPD module to support nurses to augment their skills in Intensive Care Nursing:
For more details click here or contact s.kelleher@ucc.ie for further enquires

Health Management Institute of Ireland (HMI) learning and development partner, The Learning Rooms is making their Hand Hygiene eLearning course available for free to all healthcare organisations worldwide. All details available here!
An emergency remote work kit for those starting to work from home and with larger remote teams
Cambridge University Press have published 700 textbooks for free until the end of May

Resources to support community and institutional Long-Term Care responses to COVID-19

GP-Surgeon Connect, a new service to support safe patient care in Ireland

Recent Blogs

The gap between vision and practice – Merative asks ‘how can health and social protection organisations collaborate to improve people’s lives and boost operational efficiency’

Niamh Daly Day / September 13, 2023