Minister Launches Report on West Cork Mental Health Collaboration
– Project Halves Hospital Admissions –
Tuesday, 18th November 2008: Mr. John Moloney TD, Minister for Equality, Disability and Mental Health, today officially launched Having Choices, An Evaluation of the Home Focus Project in West Cork, in the Maritime Hotel, Bantry.
The report undertaken by the Department of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, found that there were substantial increases in participants’ health and social gain (89 per cent), social engagement (72 per cent), independent living skills (71 per cent) and links with community groups and support organisations (71 per cent) as a result of their involvement in the project. It also found that the number of hospital admission days by participants decreased from 595 to 318 – a reduction of 47 per cent.
The Home Focus project is the result of collaboration between National Learning Network, West Cork Mental Health Services, the Irish Advocacy Network, HSE Disability Guidance Services, Work Start West Cork and the West Cork Community Partnership. The project reaches out to people with significant mental health difficulties in their own homes, supporting them to develop coping skills and to get involved in their community again. Training is developed to meet each person’s needs and includes the development of skills such as mental health and well-being management, advocacy, and confidence-building, in addition to providing information about diet and nutrition, and supporting participants to re-build their links with the community.
Patrick Murphy, Area Manager, National Learning Network West Cork, comments, “The University College Cork evaluation of this project shows that it has been a singular success and provides clear evidence of the fantastic benefits of linking directly with people in their homes and communities. As a result of the Home Focus project, participants have been able to improve their quality of life and become more involved in their communities, while at the same time enhancing their own mental health and well-being, independent living and future planning skills, and education, training and employment opportunities. Its success suggests that similar projects are required elsewhere as essential building blocks in supporting the delivery of mental health care in the community. National Learning Network looks forward to working with the HSE in developing this model of best practice in other parts of the country.”
The project is delivered by a team of mental health professionals to people for periods of between 3 and 18 months, depending on individual need, in home and community settings in the West Cork areas of Skibbereen/Schull, Bantry/Castletownbere and Clonakilty/Dunmanway. The team included a community mental health nurse, a rehabilitative training instructor, a recovery support worker and a recovery resource worker, along with support from a broad range of staff from all the partner organisations.
The project was funded under the Enhancing Disability Services Project Funding (EDS) of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
ENDS
Note to editor: National Learning Network is Rehab’s training and employment division. National Learning Network has been operating in West Cork since 1983. Over the past year, approximately 120 people with a broad range of disabilities have participated in a diverse range of training programmes in the National Learning Network centre in Donemark in Bantry and in its home-based learning, employer-based training and outreach mental health services.
For further information, contact:
Patrick Murphy, Area Manager, National Learning Network, Bantry
Tel: 027 51027
Email: patrick.murphy@nln.ie
Tess Tattersall, Rehab
Tel: 01 205 7260
Mobile: 086 872 2509
Email: tess.tattersall@www.rehab.ie