It has been a busy first six months of 2022 for St. Michael’s House as we navigated through the pandemic and worked towards a new normal for our organisation. As a staff team we have tackled all challenges, embraced the easing of restrictions and strived to deliver a safe reopening of services.

Supporting service users and families is always top of our agenda. It has not been an easy road but I believe we have made progress on our journey back to pre-Covid19 operations. I am delighted to report that most service users living at home are back attending their day service. In our last Ezine update I informed you on the completion of a review of St. Michael’s House Transport service. The aim of this review was to increase our transport routes, maximise efficiency and reduce journey times for service users. Changes to transport were implemented in May and have proven to be working well for all. We continue to monitor, review and make necessary changes to services to increase provision.

As we enter these summer months and brighter days, we are proceeding with caution. National updates highlight the rising numbers of Covid19 cases across the country once again. Unfortunately, St. Michael’s House are feeling the impact of this current wave. We are experiencing staff shortages due to sick leave and have many vacancies across the organisation waiting to be filled. There is a significant resource issue across the disability and health sector. St. Michael’s House is working with the HSE to recruit new staff and increase our teams but this process is proving challenging. St. Michael’s House is an excellent career path for healthcare professionals and I am confident that we will secure the best people to join our team soon. I would like to acknowledge the valuable efforts of our HR Department during this time.

As always, I am very proud of the incredible work being carried out across all disciplines, services and departments within St. Michael’s House. There are so many positive projects and updates for you to read about throughout this Ezine. We are collaborating, developing, improving and sharing the learning with our colleagues to achieve best practice in these changing times. We welcome the upcoming National Assisted Decision Making Capacity Act. The Act will support adults to make their own decisions and have support to do so if they require it. This is a really important development for all and we are keeping staff informed and getting ready for the commencement of the Act due in September 2022.

St. Michael’s House recently celebrated Carers across Ireland as part of #CarersWeek2022. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all carers who recently participated in our Strategic Plan Development 2022-2027. Your contributions have proved so important to the design of this plan and we were delighted to give you a platform for your opinion to be counted. I am now appealing to all carers, parents and guardians to support us once again. Last year, the government launched the Disability Capacity Review – a ten year plan outlining the capacity and resources required to support future needs of people with disabilities in Ireland. As part of this review we were promised a four year action plan 2022-2025 by the end of 2021. This will inform our future planning of services and ensure budgets align. Please use your voice to appeal to the government to issue this publication urgently.

Finally, I would like acknowledge our service users who continue to adapt and work with us during these unprecedented times. Thank you – you are all inspiring. I hope you enjoy these coming summer months with your families and make lots of lovely new memories.

Liz Reynolds, CEO - St. Michael’s House

Year of the Nurse

To celebrate the Year of the Nurse, albeit delayed because of the pandemic Ann Marie O’Reilly, NMOC (Nurse Manager on Call) represented nursing in St Michael’s House at the celebration at Áras an Uachtaráin on the 17th March 2022.

Teaming up with DCU

St. Michael’s House are delighted to now have a service agreement with DCU for RNID nursing students. As a result we will have student nurses attending St. Michael’s House for their clinical placements, throughout their four years of training. We welcomed the first nine student nurses in February 2022.

Sharing the Learning

Congratulations to Anne Spencer, Alison Buggie and Joan Gilvarry who presented at the recent Nursing Midwifery Planning Development Unit (NMPDU) Conference. Muireann Ní Riain, Dawn Coyle and Anne Spencer also won a prize for their poster presentation “Make Every Movement Count”.

Also congratulations to Louise Kenny & Carole Whelan who presented to Community Healthcare Organisations nationally about challenges of implementing Infection Prevention & Control in an intellectual disability service.

Assisted Decision Making

St. Michael’s House Assisted Decision Making (ADM) Steering Group continues to prepare for the commencement of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act. The Act will provide adults with formalised supports, if they require them, to make decisions and the opportunity to have their will and preferences upheld.

The ADM steering group has developed resources for staff and service users and are hosting a series of staff information webinars to prepare for the commencement of the Act. This is a very important piece of legislation which we look forward to being fully commenced.

SMH Celebrates Carers Week 2022

St. Michael's House were delighted to celebrate Carers Week 2022 and recognise the great work of Carers across our organisation and nationally.

St. Michael's House hosted events and developed specific resources to support family carers this June. Carers and supporters were invited to join in a self-care webinar focused on creating positives in carer's roles as they carry out the very significant support they provide their loved ones. Playback is available here.

The Communications Team also developed a free downloadable self-care card which is also available here.

Learning Complex Housing Adaptions

St. Michael’s House Occupational Therapy Department are working collaboratively with Elite Healthcare to brainstorm and learn about the most complex housing adaptions solution for people with disabilities.

Therapists from both adults and children services took part in this recent information sharing session.

Mosaic Installations with Moyle

Moyle Day Service partnered with The Irish Hospice Foundation for Memorial Garden with Mosaic Installations as part of their Seed Grant initiative.

Social Care Worker, Lynn Leggett, and mosaic artist, Aidan Byrne, guided service-users in creating mosaics to adorn the centre’s memorial garden in their memory. The process of creating these artistic pieces proved extremely therapeutic and enjoyable for everyone.

Garda Visits Green Street Hub

Thank you to Garda Brendan who dropped by our Green Street Hub today. The Hub recently contacted An Garda Síochána and Brendan kindly visited the group to discuss safety tips while accessing their community. Our service users told Brendan about their use of JAM cards when out and about. Brendan was delighted to learn how JAM cards help the group to let other people know that they may need extra time to answer questions or to understand what they need to do next.

Ablefest

Ailesbury Respite, located in Dundrum, enjoyed a fantastic day out at Ablefest 2022 last Sunday.

Ablefest is a summer music festival for people, friends and families with disabilities. The residents at Ailesbury enjoyed a day of music, drumming workshops, equine ability horses, food trucks and lots lots more.

They are already planning for the next one!

Fast Friends Summer Luau

On June 24, St Vincent’s GAA Club in Marino was the venue for the first SMH "Fast Friends" event of 2022. Over 80 service users and 40 staff/family members from different organisations attended on the night. The function room was transformed into a Hawaiian Luau, thanks to the creativity of Joanne O Reilly and Dina McAnespy from Grattan. All attendees received floral lays on arrival which added to the tropical vibe. DJ Mick and Dusty provided the music on the night ensuring that the dance floor was never empty . An amazing night was had by all, with plenty of new friendships formed.

Next planned Fast Friends event is our Halloween Spooktacular on 28 October 2022 - ticket sales will be announced soon.

Clontarf Golf Club tees off with SMH

Clontarf Golf Club are working with our Leisure Centre team to set up a new inclusive golf programme. The club hosted an open day on 13th May with almost 60 adults from the St. Michael's House present to find out more about the new programme. The first 25 people started a six-week block on 20th May. The programme has been well supported by volunteers from Clontarf Golf Club who have developed a plan to take the new golfers through skills and drills over the coming weeks. Thank you to the staff and members of Clontarf Golf Club for this fantastic opportunity.

Shelbourne FC Football4All

SMH Activity Hub hosted an online information session in May with Finian McGrath, the new sports inclusion officer at Shelbourne FC.

Many units and service users joined in this zoom information session to find out more about the new community-based programme. Adults and staff members got the opportunity to come online to meet Finian and find out how they could get involved.

Over 40 service users have signed up to the Football4All programme which started on Tuesday 24th May. Thank you to all involved in this fantastic initiative.

St. Michael’s House Library and Resource Centre holds over 5,000 books and subscribes to 20 journals on intellectual disability, Autism and related subjects.

We are constantly adding new titles. Contact patsy.carton@smh.ie for more information

BA in Social Care with Open Training College

OTC now receiving applications to the BA in Social Care

Contact Conor on cmurray@opentrainingcollege.com or 086 0756580 for more information.

Jill Donnelly Golf Classic 2022

The 30th annual Jill Donnelly Golf Classic fundraiser for St. Michael’s House took place on the 28th of April at Milltown Golf Club in Churchtown The event was organised by the Jill Donnelly Golf Classic Committee, and it is the largest annual fundraiser for the charity. Over €100,00 was raised on the day, the highest amount to date, bringing the total raised over thirty years to over €1.5million.

Forty-six corporate teams took part in the event this year, teeing off on two shotgun starts. The event also featured a dinner and prize giving ceremony with surprise after dinner guest speaker, Oliver Callan.

The 2022 Jill Donnelly Golf Classic Committee is chaired by Gavin Keane. The committee was established by Conor and Gabrielle Donnelly in memory of their daughter, Jill who attended St Michael’s House. The event was supported by sponsors Toyota, ALD Automotive, EI Electronics, Julius Baer, Grant Engineering, Paragon –Europe and UDG Healthcare.

Congratulations to Allegro who were the overall winner on the night. Thank you to everyone who supported this years Jill Donnelly Golf Classic and made the 30th Anniversary celebrations and day to remember.

Well Done to the Camino Five!

Well done to the Camino Five who have just completed their challenge in aid of the SMH Units where they work.

All monies raised will be equally divided between Donabate Respite, Eithne Day Centre and Short Term Training Centre (STTC) to create sensory gardens and to fund service user projects.

The Anthony Bus

St. Michael's House would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the Phelan Family who presented the residents of Kennington with an accessible bus for their unit.

The Phelan family donated this accessible vehicle in memory of their brother Anthony who was a resident of Kennington for 27 years. The staff and residents have officially named the bus "The Anthony Bus" to honour their friend and housemate.

Our Amazing Fundraising Duo!

We would like to say a huge thank you to long standing fundraisers Sandra Horan and Derek Burke. The dynamic duo’s annual table quiz returned after a Covid-hiatus and were delighted presented a cheque for over €3,500 to our Raheny Hub service. Their annual table quiz has become a very popular event for many due to the fantastic organisation and prizes on the night. We would like to extend our gratitude to The Goblet Lounge and Restaurant, all prize sponsors and quizzers who supported the event.

Click on the links below for more information on why YOU should join our team!

Alan - Service Manager

Rebecca - Social Care Worker

Ciaran - CNM2

Margaret - Direct Support Worker

Karen - Service Manager

We Remember

Aileen McCormack - Glencorry & Ballymun LC

Clare Harwood - Staff (CDNT Kilbarrack)

Joseph Lambe - Leinster Road LC

Vinny Roe - Oaklands LC

Owen Dunne - Grangemore Rise & Enterprise LC

Neil Byrne - Glenveagh & Belcamp

Patrick Whelan - Sallowood & Moyle Road

Gerard O’Hanlon - Donabate & Belcamp

Geraldine McKenna - The Pines & Goatstown Services