Health « Thurles Information

Home Instead Tipperary CAREgiver of the Year 2012

Above Picture shows, Left – Right; Home Instead’s Michael Wright, Marie Looby, Geraldine Hoyne, and Mary Healy. Client’s family: Helen Gleeson, Brian Gleeson, Home Instead’s Teresa Nolan, Christina Carroll and in the front row is Mrs Elizabeth Thompson and her daughter Ann Ryan.

Home Instead Senior Care is delighted to announce that Gortnahoe’s Mary Healy has been awarded the honour of “Home Instead Tipperary’s CAREgiver of the Year 2012.”

Mary, a native of Gortnahoe, near Thurles, started working with Home Instead Senior Care in 2010, when she decided to become a CAREGiver.

“Despite having no initial formal training in caring, Mary went on to receive tutoring in Patient Dementia, Patient Handling and Fetac Level 5 Practical Home Care Skills,” explains Michael Wright, Owner Home Instead Senior Care.

This annual Tipperary Award, now in its third year, gives deserved recognition to all 90 amazing Home Instead CAREGivers who, more often than not, go above and beyond the call of duty, with this year being no exception. Home Instead Senior Care CAREGivers visit people in their own homes and assist people to stay independent at home, longer than would otherwise be possible.

Mary has cared for over 20 such families since joining Home Instead and in each case has formed trusted relationships with her clients. She has put smiles on faces and filled houses with song. Whether she is assisting someone with memory difficulties, or caring in palliative care cases, Mary is always offering her clients peace, dignity and care.

Helen Gleeson, whose father Mary calls to, says “Mary is a gentle soul, who is very professional and very kind. Daddy is mad about her and this has made life easier for all our family, knowing Mary is calling out to Dad.”

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care call Tel: 0504 91100 or visit www.homeinstead.ie/

Note: Tax relief is available against this service, which significantly reduces the total cost of home care.

Thurles Man Michael Walsh To Walk The Way Of St James

In April 2013 Thurles resident & Co Galway native Commandant Michael Walsh (Retd & former aide de camp to H.E. the President of Ireland), will join forces with Yvonne Tyler to undertake a 2500k trek on foot. Their trek will begin here from Holycross Abbey, Thurles, in Co Tipperary, ending eventually in Santiago de Compostella Galicia in Spain, and will follow the Ancient Pilgrims Route, known as “The Way of St James.”

Note, “The Way of St. James” was one of the most important Christian pilgrimage routes taken during medieval times & legend holds that St. James’s remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain, where he was buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela.

The final goal of Michael & Yvonne’s three month trek, however, is to increase an awareness of Autism nationally here in Ireland and highlight, not just its effect on family members and persons with Autism, but also to raise much needed funds for two specific Autism related charities, namely the Tús Nua Autism Residential and Resource Centre here in Thurles and Cottage Autism Network based in Co Wexford.

Michael is seeking your support for this trek and in particular the charities he hopes to support. Both Yvonne and Michael know, from first hand, the effect that Autism has on families and in his own case, his son Cian who is cared for in the recently opened Tús Nua Autism Residential and Resource Centre (a ‘RehabCare,’ project ) in Thurles. Yvonne’s niece Anna Gill and family receive great support from Cottage Autism Network in Wexford and without the generous support both of these groups give to all families in similar situations they are not sure how they and many other families could cope.

Before they set off on this trek in April 2013, they have planned many varied fundraising events, in the realisation that it has never been a more difficult time financially to find funds, but nevertheless they are seeking your generous support for the many fundraising events planned.

Both Yvonne & Michael are anxious to make it known, that all monies donated through fundraising events will go directly to the chosen charities and all costs relating to their proposed trek will be personally funded by the participating individuals themselves.

We at Thurles.Info will be reporting regularly on Michael & Yvonne’s progress, as they walk across northern Spain on this Pilgrim Route.

They both hope that they can count on your support & if you require any further information or want to make a small donation, do please contact Michael at Telephone (Mobile) 087 2755445, (Land-Line); 0504-22408 or Email mjtwalsh@eircom.net

New X-Ray Facility For Our Lady’s Hospital Cashel

Local Thurles doctors will once again be able to refer their patients, those requiring X-Rays, to Our Lady’s Hospital, Cashel by the end of January 2013.

This welcome information comes following the announcement by the HSE that a new €100,000 state-of-the-art X-Ray machine will now be installed at this hospital, with immediate effect.

Presently non-urgent patients are being placed on waiting lists, leading to a three months delay in South Tipperary General, while X-Ray machinery at Our Lady’s Hospital, Cashel continued to remain out of action, latter due to the unavailability of some spare parts.

The minor injuries clinic in Cashel will now be again fully restored, thus preventing local patients from having to travel longer distances to Clonmel & Waterford for necessary treatment.

Hospital Of The Assumption No Extra Beds

Hospital Action Group Protest

The HSE Director-General designate, Mr Tony O’Brien, has stated that there are no plans to open further beds in the Hospital of the Assumption here in Thurles, Co Tipperary.

Earlier this year the number of beds open in the Hospital was reduced to 50 “within existing resources,” Mr O’Brien told a Joint Oireachtas Health Committee.

Mr O’Brien further stated that the overall position would be actively reviewed within the context of the HSE’s National Service Plan 2013. The Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly stated, “I made it clear that I would seek to have beds reopened on the basis that it was a modern facility and that we needed rehabilitation services. I did not specify the number of beds.”

Fine Gael Deputy Noel Coonan stated at a public meeting last October, in front of a packed lecture theatre in the Tipperary Institute, that a “substantial number of beds,” would be re-opened within three weeks. It was intimated that up to 10 respite beds would be brought back into operation and the Deputy cited the same Chief Executive Officer of the HSE Mr Tony O’Brien, and the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr Ambrose McLoughlin as the source of his unexpected announcement.

There were 72 beds in this hospital originally prior to a current recruitment moratorium.

HSE Community Health Warning

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has issued a health warning concerning a gastro virus that is currently in the community and affecting hospitals across the country. Norovirus, a stomach bug equivalent to the common cold, is highly infectious and normally affects at least 1% of the population in any given year.

Measures to control & curtail the virus have been stepped up as the HSE released a statement appealing to the public to steer clear of all hospitals if they have been affected by this bug. Exact infection figures are not known as many people suffering from Norovirus will recover at home without seeking medical attention.

Cases have been recorded in a number of hospitals and community settings around the country in recent weeks.

Hospitals do have infection control measures in place and if affected in the community, the HSE recommends the frequent washing of hands to limit the spread of the illness. The gastro virus is very resilient and can survive for long periods on worktop surfaces.