Leaders in the field of mental health will meet in Mayo on May 17 and 18 next to meet providers, service users, carers, and family members and to overview the services and share information on how inclusion at all levels, clinical, operational, and strategic is being promoted within the service.
Ireland as a whole will become the focus for members of the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL ) with mental health leaders from throughout the world coming to various parts of Ireland to visit services, exchange information, and develop networks. Following this, the visitors will go on to the organisation meeting and conference in the INEC in Killarney.
Mayo has been selected as a host site for one of these exchanges, with particular reference to the mental health recovery services. The theme of the Mayo visit is “Realising Recovery through Inclusion and Partnership”. The focus of the visit will be on the initiatives in the services to foster joint working by service users, carers/family members, and providers at clinical, operational and strategic levels.
ADD PIC: Mr Joe Beirne, Mayo County Council; Michael Ring TD; Minister John Gormley; Cllr John Cribben and Mr Peter Hynes, Mayo County Council at Ballycroy visitor park launch. Absent from photo, Mr Enda Kenny TD.
Disappointment for Kenny
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny TD has expressed disappointment after being omitted from the invitation list to the opening of Ballycroy National Park today.
Criticising Minister John Gormley’s decision to selectively invite Oireachtas members, Deputy Kenny said: “It’s not personal but this was a proposal that was delivered by the Fine Gael led government during its last term of office. It was an issue in which Deputy Ring and I were centrally involved at the time and in which I have a deep and well known interest. The fact that Minister Gormley is selective in his invitations is a disappointment. His colleague Dr Martin Mansergh is also in Mayo and while I am in a position to attend at his official occasions at least the OPW had the courtesy to extend an invitation to me,” he huffed.
Nurses and midwives in bother
A three-day conference for nurses and midwives in Ireland is currently under way to highlight serious issues facing those working in health care.
INMO president Sheila Dickson revealed that having spent the last number of months travelling around the country meeting members on the ground, she was genuinely shocked by their stories and struggles to cope due to the savage impact the moratorium on recruitment has had on nursing numbers.
“The cutbacks are having a disastrous impact on patient care and our members are genuinely fearful, not only for their own future, but also that of patients they care for. One of the motions for consideration at conference this year is the withholding of the retention fee of €85 from An Bord Altranais. This is due to the board’s failure to support the professions by issuing clear directives to nurses and midwives who are having their professional judgment, with regard to safe practice and safe care, ignored by their employers, leaving their own position compromised.”
Cowley happy to be back in politics
Newly returned politician Dr Jerry Cowley is delighted to be back in the fold having joined the Labour Party as a new candidate.
“There’s an awful lot to be done and that’s not maybe,” said a delighted Dr Cowley who has lately featured alongside leader Eamon Gilmore on prime time TV. The former Independent TD who was courted by most major political parties, said he had to return. “Things have just got so bad. Hospital services are especially an issue because everything is being centralised. If we’re not careful we’ll be left with nothing in Mayo,” he said.
New car park for Belmullet
Pat Carey, TD, Minister for Community, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs, has announced the approval of a grant of €6,660 for Belmullet GAA to enable it to develop a car park at the playing fields in Tamhlach. The money was sanctioned as a grant of €5,550 approved under the Gaeltacht Improvements Scheme and another grant of €1,100 under the CLÁR scheme.
Funding needed for dementia sufferers
HSE cutbacks due to threatened industrial action could have a direct impact on older people and carers already struggling to cope in providing much needed support for those with dementia in Ireland, according to The Alzheimer Society of Ireland.
Recent media reports state the HSE “has no idea how its €14.3bn budget is being spent and so could face drastic cutbacks later this year”.
The HSE's national crisis management team will consider a range of issues, including the curtailment of home-care packages, which give support to people such as the elderly, according to the Irish Independent.
This comes as The Alzheimer Society of Ireland has called for more support for people with dementia and their carers. The call arises as figures show the number of people with the condition will rise to almost 100,000 by 2030.
Yesterday (May 6 ) The Alzheimer Society of Ireland held its National Tea Day to highlight the need for more resources and raise up to €550,000 in funds that will be vital to ensure that families can access their local Alzheimer’s services nationwide when they need.
add pic: Group of Mayo volunteers in Haiti
Mayo people fly the flag in Haiti
Several Mayo people were among the 297 wonderful volunteers who travelled to Haiti recently with Irish charity Haven. The group built 63 houses, a community/training centre, and a wonderful playground in a hurricane ravaged area of northern Haiti called Gonaives.
Our motoring correspondent Padraic Deane was among the group and he told the Advertiser: “It was very tough both physically working in temperatures of up to 47 degrees celsius and mentally, dealing with the terrible environment that the people of Haiti live. However, to say that this experience is life changing and most rewarding is an under-statement.
“The Haitian people are already being forgotten with no foreign correspondents left in the country,” he added. “They are the descendents of the slaves abducted from Africa and they have no oil or other precious natural resources to attract the interests, enterprise, and jobs from wealthy nations. What they are is part of our human race, and they deserve not to forgotten, they deserve our help to achieve the basic human right of shelter and a fair chance of survival.”
You can read more about the work of this worthy charity by logging on to www.havenpartnership.com
