Expanding healthcare for older people in Galway’s rural and island communities

HSE services are expanding care for people living in remote and island communities with a number of outreach clinics taking place in rural Galway and the offshore islands over the summer.

A team of specialist geriatric practitioners are bringing care closer to home by visiting older people in their community, including outreach clinics on the Aran Islands. An important part of this service, in a Gaeltacht area, is the delivery of healthcare through the Irish language.

Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Máire Ni Neachtain is a native Irish speaker and is part of the team who are carrying out comprehensive geriatric assessments on Inis Mór. 

Inis Mór is the largest of the Aran Islands, it is a Gaeltacht community with a population of approximately 800 people located 20km off the coast of Galway.

Speaking about her role Máire said: “One of the aims of our Integrated Care for Older People’s service (ICPOP) is to enhance specialist geriatric care and enable older people to live well and independently.”

“Within an Irish speaking community, and within older person’s services in particular, it is very important to be able to facilitate clinical appointments in a patient’s native language. I am delighted to be part of the team offering these clinics to people living on the Aran islands.

“Patients are referred to our service by GPs, primary care and the local hospitals and we care for people who may have had falls, are experiencing frailty or changes in cognition.

“Our role is to carry out comprehensive geriatric assessments, which is seen as gold standard in older person assessments. We identify any needs the patient has and can refer for further diagnostics, social care and supports. A key aspect of service is to recognise and respond to the specific needs of the patient, including determining what matters most to them.”

Island communities can experience unique challenges in accessing healthcare; financial cost, time spent travelling and the impact of bad weather all can act as barriers for people availing of timely access to healthcare.

Anne Beatty is a 91 year old resident of Inis Mór and describes the benefit of having specialist services closer to home; “I am delighted that the service is coming to Aran, you would get nervous going to Galway on a bad day, the plane or the boat might not be able to come and it’s great that the service is available in Irish too, because that’s our native language.

“There are a lot of us over 90 years old on the island and we are very grateful to the team for coming out to us to keep us living well and healthy.”

Dr Robert Murphy, Consultant Geriatrician said; “Within the Galway City and Galway West ICPOP service we have a number of outreach clinics in Clifden, Carraroe and the Aran Islands, we work closely with primary care colleagues, island GPs and public health nurses to provide timely and responsive care to older adults closer to their home.”

“Our ICPOP team has a Consultant Geriatrician, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Dieticians who are focussed on enabling older people to maintain their independence and live well at home for as long as possible. This provides a “one-stop-shop” for older people with complex needs and the integrated approach leads to better outcomes for patients.”

“We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from these outreach clinics, people appreciate that we are able to see them in their community and can respond to their concerns.”

Watch this video to find out more about Anne’s experience of the ICPOP service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaMjIPzIBUE

This video is also available as Gaeilge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnTzPdIN2TA