Community Matters 23july2024

The Community Matters program on Connemara Community Radio is sponsored by Connemara Credit Union Ltd. The show features interviews with various organizations. The first interview is with the Galway Samaritans to discuss Samaritans Awareness Day and the services they offer. The second interview is with representatives from the RNLI to promote World Drowning Prevention Day. The third interview is with the National Manager of the Patient Advocacy Service, discussing how to make formal complaints about experiences in hospitals or nursing homes. The final interview is with the Regional Development Officer of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, discussing the area's EU Regional Innovation Valley status. The Samaritans provide a listening service and have a 24-hour helpline. They receive over 3,000 calls a month and offer support for various issues including mental health, loneliness, and bereavement. The organization is run entirely by volunteers and relies on fundraising to keep th Community Matters is kindly sponsored by Connemara Credit Union Ltd, incorporating Clifton, Tully Cross and Carna branches. Connemara Credit Union is here to serve the people of the Connemara area. Main office, Clifton and Tully Cross branch, 19521101. Good evening and welcome to this week's Community Matters program here on Connemara Community Radio with me Maureen Corbett and with Dermot Dunyon on Techdesk this evening. Now as always we have a lot of interesting interviews lined up for you. We have four in total for this evening between now and eight o'clock so I do hope wherever you're listening that you're comfortable and you're able to stay listening to us between now and then. So tonight we will be talking with the Galway Samaritans because on Wednesday this week, Wednesday the 24th of July, it's Samaritans Awareness Day so I will be talking with Mary Nee, the Assistant Director there in a few minutes, to tell us more about that and also all the work that the Samaritans are involved in in the area. Then next up I will be talking to two representatives from the RNLI here in Clifton because Thursday, the 25th, is World Drowning Prevention Day and they'll be in studio to give us all some much needed advice and information on how we can all try and reduce the number of drownings and be safe in and around water for the rest of the summer season and throughout the rest of the year. Now if you've ever wanted to or needed to or felt the need to actually make a formal complaint about an experience that you have had in a public acute hospital or a nursing home, I will be talking to Georgina Cruz, the National Manager, with a new service set up in 2019, the Patient Advocacy Service, and she will be telling us how she will assist with that and what it involves and the whole process in making a formal complaint about an experience you may have had in a public acute hospital or a nursing home. And then I will be talking with Eimear Dowd, the Regional Development Officer with the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, as they have some good news because they have recently been informed that the area gets the EU Regional Innovation Valley status and what that will mean going forward. So as I say, lots coming up between now and 8 o'clock, so do stay with me. My first guest is on the line now and she is Mary Nee, the Assistant Director with Galway Samaritans. Good evening, Mary, and welcome to Community Matters. Hi, Maureen. How are you? Thanks so much for having me on. No, it's lovely to have you on, Mary. Now, I know I mentioned there that it is Samaritans Awareness Day tomorrow and there will be something taking place, I'm sure, to mark the occasion, and you can tell me about that in a minute. But before you do, just let listeners know what work the Samaritans are involved in in Galway, just as a reminder, and all the work that you and the volunteer team there are involved in. Okay. Okay, well, Samaritans is a listening service, so we have a free phone number, which is 116123. Samaritans in Galway, we have our Samaritan house in 14 Nones Island. People can call in to us. We also have an email, if people would prefer that, which is joe, j-o, at samaritans.ie. And we, I suppose what we offer is that if anyone calls us and wants to talk about what's going on, that it will be a safe space for them, that we won't judge what they're saying, we won't tell them what to do, but it's a place to explore your problems and hopefully maybe to come up with your own solution at the end of that. So what we practice is active listening, Maureen, and in Galway, we get, I think it's over 3,000 calls a month, and that's just in Galway. So for example, like every 61 seconds, Samaritans responds to a call for help, and in 2023, Samaritan volunteers spent more than 500,000 hours responding to calls for help. And those calls can be help in relation to a myriad of different issues or crises or problems that someone is experiencing? Exactly. So it can be anything, and loneliness and isolation remains among one of the top reasons why people reach out for support. Also mental health issues, stress, family relationship problems, financial, employment issues, bereavement, chronic pain, illness. You know, like anything really that somebody is struggling with, and we have a vision in Samaritans that fewer people will die by suicide, so we do explore suicidal feelings in our calls, and only one in five people who call Samaritans say they have suicidal feelings, and of those, it would be maybe less than 1% who are actively suicidal. So you know, 80% of the people who call us are just struggling with something and need to talk, and the reason we have our Awareness Day tomorrow, which is the 24th of July, is to highlight the fact that we have a 24-hour-a-day service, seven days a week, and that's every day of the year, and the Samaritans in Galway are going to have a stand there for a shopping centre from 10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., and that's just, you know, we'll have some brochures and things for people if anyone wants to call by and say hello, and we can give you more information then about what our service does, or maybe you'd even like to volunteer with us, and we can give you information about that as well, and also Samaritans in Galway support a branch, we have a hub satellite branch in Castle Bar, so Samaritans in Castle Bar will be nanning a desk and SuperValue from 12 until 4 p.m. tomorrow as well. Because it is all volunteers, it's 100% volunteer-run, the organisation, yeah. Well, we have a few paid members in Dublin, but in Galway, for example, we have 120 volunteers more in, and nobody is paid, you know, so it's all volunteers, and with that, we, you know, we sort of, we offer, or we do, we commit to do a three-hour listening duty once a week, and you can sign up, you know, at a time that will suit you, but as well as that then, every four, three or four months, we have to do an overnight duty, which is from 11 at night until 5 in the morning, and every four to six weeks, we do an early or a late, as we call it, from 5 to 8 in the morning, or from 11 until 2.30. There's always two Samaritan volunteers on duty together to support each other, and we always do our duties in non-violent, so, you know, like at 3 in the morning, maybe, if you have somebody supporting you, or we say a service is supporting you, you know, it's hard to pick up the phone or to wake a family member or whatever, but you can phone Samaritans, and we find that we, you know, our busiest time is sort of from 6 p.m. to about 3 or 4 a.m., and that's probably when people, as I was saying, you know, maybe don't have the support that they would have had. They don't have the daytime support that they may have relied on or maybe working with during that time, and the later it gets at night, then, you know, the lonelier people obviously get, and the more disconnected they may feel from people. Well, that's the thing, yeah, and like that, you know, human connection is so important for all of us, and I suppose it's one thing that COVID taught us all as well, is that, you know, we really need the connection with other people, so even on the phone, you can have, you know, you can feel almost like the arm of friendship or support around your shoulder, you know, if you can talk about something that, you know, is really bothering you, and you know that it's a safe space for you to talk. And knowing it's safe is very important if somebody is struggling or has an issue or they're lonely or they feel vulnerable at that particular moment in time. Exactly, yeah. Now, I know also that fundraising events are key for yourselves there to be able to keep the phone lines open and the lights on. Do you have anything coming up for the rest of the summer that you'd like to let listeners know? Well, most of our fundraising now is done online, like COVID forced us into that, because most people don't carry money now. Our two main fundraising events were like Churchgate Collection in September, and then we had a Flag Day in the summer, maybe in June or July, but that's gone now. So, like, we have, you know, Galway Samaritans are on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all those, and there's a Now Donate button there that people can, you know, can use. And also, there's a free phone number, like 50300 to donate for Euro, and, you know, if people want to do that. So, but mainly tomorrow, it's about raising awareness, so that we want to make people aware that that service that we have is available for people, so that, you know, we hope that before they feel that they have no other option than to take their life, they might pick up the phone and look for some support. So, you're going to be in the Ayres Square Centre then, from half past six? Ayres Square Centre, yeah, just opposite Penny's, so from 10.30 in the morning until 6.30pm of tomorrow. So, it's a fairly visible spot, if anyone's in the area, they will spot you there. Now, I just see here's one that you're also involved with, have a very active community and outreach work, especially with the education program. Can you tell us a little bit about that? That's right, like, we have a very good outreach program as well. So, like, Samaritan Volunteers, and again, we always go in pods of two or more, we go to schools and do an emotional health talk, and also to universities, you know, the universities every year, and, you know, any group can ask, and we will come and, you know, talk to them about how you're feeling, how things can get on top of you, and that sometimes it might be a small thing that can break the camel's back, and, you know, like, the things to do then to make yourself feel a bit better. So, you know, we do that regularly. We also, Samaritans in Galway support Castle Ree Prison, so we have Samaritan Volunteers that go in to the prison, and we also train nationally, we train prisoners to be listeners, and we do get a lot of phone calls from prisoners as well, because ours is one of the numbers that they are allowed to call, you know, the officers give them a phone line. So, when you say train them to be listeners, are they just listening to other people in the prison contacting them, because they obviously can't travel to a call center and take calls? No, the listeners in the prison, like, it's a slightly different, we'd say, training that they do, but yes, it'll be, they'll be training prisoners, and we have done that, and quite for quite a few years, I think it's 20 years old now, the prison service, and they're often prisoners as well who have maybe a long sentence, because they'll be in there for a long time, and they will actually listen to other prisoners, so they will go to the cell, or there's some area in the prison that, you know, is facilitated. So, they can do face-to-face? Face-to-face, yeah, they do a face-to-face, and then they also are supported by volunteers, we'll say, in the different branches, so that they can talk about a call, and get support for themselves. So, you know, like, we had a graduation there not that long ago from Castlereagh, and I wasn't there myself now, but people who were there were saying that it was quite emotional, because you had these prisoners who were getting a little certificate for having done the training as listeners, and their families were there, you know, so it was maybe the first time that they ever, you know, got a chance to celebrate achieving something. So, you know, that's just one branch of society that, you know, do have a higher risk of suicide, and self-harm, and all the other things, and so that's one branch, you know, that's one part of society that we do support, but as I said, anyone can phone Samaritans and get support, and, you know, I often say, people say, what kind of people phone Samaritans? I'd say more in people like you, and people like me, you know, we all go through difficult times, and we all need maybe to talk at certain times, and, you know, if we're not, if we don't have somebody, you know, that we can feel, that we can talk to openly, and that we don't want to burden them, maybe, you know, we can phone Samaritans and get support there, and you might notice as well on a lot of, you know, when they show programs on RTE that would have discussing subject matter, or whatever, they always have Samaritans number as one of the helplines to call, you know, if you've been affected by that. I think there is, there used to be, or there may still be, with some people, this sort of misunderstanding that you only call the Samaritans if you are suicidal. Well, that's a thing. And that it's not, if you have any issue, if you're struggling with anything, as you said, relationships, financial, a bereavement, it can be anything, it doesn't have to be crisis, and that you're in crisis, or that you're going to, you know, you're having a suicidal thought. No, you don't have to have a suicidal thought, you can be lonely, or you could be, you know, and like, sometimes, some people cope with things, maybe that somebody else, it would really, you know, shatter them. And we're all the same, there's sometimes in life that something really hits you very hard. And, you know, it's, as I said, like Samaritans on the free phone number 116 123, you know, is there for people. Okay, we have to leave it there, I'm afraid, Mary, we've run out of time. But thank you so much for coming on Community Matters and explaining to us again, the great work that the Samaritans are involved in. And if anyone listening, wants to donate or become a volunteer to contact yourselves on the website or to the phone service, and that tomorrow, and that you'll be in the Galway Shopping Centre opposite Penny's from half past 10 to half past six with Samaritans Awareness Day. Take care, Mary. Thank you very much. Bye now. So that was Mary Mee, the Assistant Director with Galway Samaritans. But stay with us, we're going to take the ad break, but we'll be back in a few minutes with my next guest. Clifton to Galway and Galway to Dublin City and Airport. To ensure your seat, book online at citylink.ie. That's citylink.ie. Please note that to reserve a seat, you must book online where we charge a small booking fee. Irish City Link. Good day to you all. If you'd like to donate, you can with any drug you want. A small thing will go a long way to make you feel better. For any other drugs you'd like to donate, you can contact us and we'll contact you. 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Welcome back to Community Matters here on Connemara Community Radio and you've just joined me. We'll be here until eight o'clock and my next guests are in studio and I'm delighted to have them in studio this evening. I'd like to welcome Miriam Harris and Michael Harris both of whom are RNLI volunteers with the RNLI Clifton. You're very welcome to Community Matters. Thanks for popping in. Thank you very much indeed for asking us. Delighted to have you. Now we will talk about Wales National Drowning Prevention Day which is Thursday of this week and I believe you also have some valuable advice and tips on water safety for everyone that's using the water at this time of the year especially it's a busy time. So what's happening for World Drowning Prevention Day first please? Okay thank you very much again Laurie for having us. First of all the background to the World Drowning Prevention Day which is 25th of July every single year was in 2021 the United Nations General Assembly realised a significant amount of people drowning unnecessarily. Anybody can drown but nobody should and it's something in the region of nearly a quarter of a million people drown every single year. Now mainly they're in the lower to you know the poorer areas, poorer countries but it can happen to anybody anytime anyplace. So they got together with the World Health Organization and bodies around the world to set up strategies for prevention so to reduce these numbers. So it's just to highlight on the 25th that it is World Drowning Prevention Day and just on an aside just to be able to mention that there's a webinar that the GEA and the RNLI are doing. It's a free webinar and the link is on your Facebook page and on the RNLI Facebook page where you can just link in at half seven on Thursday and it's a webinar about staying safe in and around water. But the strategies that we have and we're on the water safety team so what we do is we go around to schools and colleges and any events anybody who listens to us basically from top to from teens to older people and just to say how to stay safe. The very simple things we have a couple of very specific key safety messages. The first thing is before you go out make sure that you check the tides and the weather and if that changes you have to change your plans just because we're going to meet your friends tonight or today to go out onto the beach and the weather changes when you get there you just have to think about it again. So you stop and you think you know is it safe to go into the water? What are the dangers? Is this a lifeguarded beach? Are there currents here? What are the signs? The safety signs and if you don't see any of those around ask local knowledge is brilliant. You ask somebody you know is it safe to do this this and this or is it safe to go into the water? So you stop and you think and you always never go alone no matter what like I think people think oh I'm invincible I swim all the time and open water swimming especially but people like anybody can get into trouble so we'll always say don't ever go on your own always have somebody with you and somebody watching you feeling that on the shore and have a plan so if you have a plan to we say just I'm just using open water swimming as an example and you swim from A to B every single day so what happens to you if what you do something happens to you in the middle of going from A to B so do you have a plan? So how to get out have a set an exit strategy no matter what you do so if you go down to the water in your kayak as well you know always have a mobile phone or means of calling for help on your person so that could be a VHF radio as well but not everybody has that but a simple mobile phone that's fully charged it's not necessarily you don't have to have a a battery it's just fully charged you don't have to necessarily have a sim card in it sorry now so just and then the other thing the most important thing if you are using any kind of craft not that you have a life jacket that's worth that is that is safe and it's working it's one thing to have a life jacket on you but sometimes people don't know the inside of their life jacket so it's important that you get checked regularly now we advise people we show them how to look after their life jackets and we tell them what could be wrong or not wrong as the case may be so we always tell somebody to to make sure you look after it's no point in just having it it has to work you know and it has to be it has to be on you correctly yeah absolutely yeah and the big thing is purely tied and whatever else absolutely indeed especially your cross strap there's no point if the cross strap goes you sort of under between your knees legs whereas if you're in the water and it inflates um whether it's automatically or manually and it just goes above your head that's no good you know so simple really really simple things like that um so then also having the proper equipment and having proper training for going out in the water like paddle boarding is a new newish sport it's great but same thing wear your leash and make sure you have a belt or or a smaller life vest which a buoyancy aid as we call it or a personal flotation device um the thing i suppose to be really really aware of like then if you do find yourself suddenly in the water what would you do like say dan ramstone with a regatta say for instance the other day if you're walking talking to somebody the next thing you're in the water that the most important thing people think of is oh i have to get out i have to get out and they just panic they just like grasp uncontrollably they and we will always say this is the message the key stage message is float and float for your life and float to live but to do that you have to be relaxed somewhat yes and therein is probably the the contradiction uh you get the shock you get a fright you panic relaxation it doesn't come naturally actually it doesn't come naturally in that situation but surprisingly enough um a lot of drownings happen within a meter or two of safety but panic and the panic is the one that kills them so the whole float to live thing is to get that 90 seconds to get your breathing back together and then worry about how you're going to get out um so how would you tell people to try and relax in that situation what would be the first thing they should try and think of i know it is difficult yeah because we've done it ourselves jump in there and see if you can you know and it's it is quite a shock when you jump when you fall into cold water especially when you're not expecting it but yeah it's it's it's difficult but you know you spread your arms wide lying your back put your head back get the water down under your ear get your ears under the water lie back 90 seconds it's 90 seconds not a long time you know but you can drown in that 90 seconds and just try to slow down your breathing and try to calm down it's not to panic if you can stay it's easier said than done and understand fully but if you lie on your back like we tell the children like a starfish and that's why they remember it and just lie on your back open your chest out and you will float you'll be surprised but can i can a non-swimmer float absolutely anybody can and even if you're in clothes as well you can still float and the whole idea is just that if you lie on your back open your arms out float and just move your arms gently try and control your breathing then you'll have time to to catch your breath that is the biggest biggest lesson that we are message that we can give to anybody like i'm sure you thought it was on the media little girl in Dun Laoghaire in Dublin a few months ago she was found floating in the float to lift position by accident or design and that's how she survived because she just did it didn't panic and it's easier said than done and then i suppose the other thing then to what to do in an emergency then how to call for help you know a huge thing um have a plan you know again uh you ring 112 or 999 and you ask for the coast guard you know it doesn't matter if you forget all of this um to say ask for the coast guard they'll say where's your emergency and you'll say but it's very important that you know where you are so like a primary example if we were in Renfell in Galway city there a few months ago and they were talking about the children in the school were talking about and i was thinking of our Renfell over here so you have to be if you know your air code if you don't you don't just give a general idea to where you are and and it can be found exactly where you are as possible so many place names are so similar yeah so similar and you're in county Galway not county Mayo and it's so slick you know um but the accurate location is very important the other thing i'd say about um to i suppose when you're going out on the water near the water if you tell somebody where you're going so your boss and mom and dad were going off now and then you change your mind you tell them we're enjoying ourselves so they're not going to panic and think where are they you know so some point of going off and then you don't appear back and you know parents or your family where are where you know where are they so if you tell somebody where you're going and always you know tell them what time you're back at if that changes you let them know um so then i suppose that ties in with world drowning prevention day and week obviously in terms of we are we're on the water safety team we go to anybody to talk to anybody about just giving the key safety messages they're very very very simple just stop and think you know is it safe to do this again i can't repeat it enough and do not go on your own and have a means of calling for help and know what to do and if you find yourself in the water uncontrollably you know by accident like 50 of people who go out who find themselves in the water didn't expect to get wet that day no so it's just one of those things and then also the thing about world prevention drowning prevention day as well the RNLI do an international work with areas like bangladesh or ghana or zanzibar where they have their own like you know their own problems in terms of you know monsoons and children have to go to school on water and like huge huge incidents 90 percent of the drownings take place in these areas which is very very sad and we just want to try and stop it so you can everybody can enjoy the water but you just if you do those key you're not none of us are invincible and um i suppose no matter what happens if anybody's in trouble the RNLI you know we're a charity to save lives at sea we will come 24 7 365 um no matter what the circumstances we're just there to save lives and that's it we don't ask any questions um and some people are under the illusion though in other countries that the emergency service you pay for you don't pay for this service in this country which is wonderful because it's a charity that we rely on and complete generosity and it is wonderful and and even if if you're not in the water but you're at the beach or you're on the shore or you're you know at the seaside yourself and there's no lifeguard maybe just to be a little bit more extra vigilant keep your eyes peeled in case somebody around you is in trouble even if you don't know them but if you notice anybody in difficulty or keep eyes on small children or older people or whatever walking that's in case anyone else gets into difficulty that you might spot it and you might be the one that raises the alarm for them yeah and on that note actually we always tell the children in schools that they are the local knowledge they're most likely to be on the beach and they're most likely to see some so they are the local knowledge so if they see somebody in trouble that somebody's having trouble they should be the ones to step forward and say you know don't don't be doing what you're doing it's not safe there yeah you know so we all have a responsibility to watch out for each other as well exactly the other thing there's a couple uh just on that note especially younger people with mobile phones and stuff like that if you see your friend if your friend falls into the water don't become double trouble don't go and ask them call for help don't record it you know report it ring for help and it's very hard you can just look around even see what's available like we do this trick that's not a trick this exercise thank you and with this with the ty students like we bring things like we tell them what's the quality of your graphics you might find we've throw bags like the same as a life ring equivalent of um with ropes what can you see around on a pier say and then a simple thing like all their jumpers take them off together and tie the arms and that becomes a that's becomes a rope for somebody the most important thing is you don't go in after somebody it's horrendous to look at somebody in trouble but keep an eye on them reassure them people can say can can save people with their lives by telling them lie on your back help is on the way you know count to 60 seconds or 90 seconds and relax it and relax your breathing and they might be able to swim to shore okay i'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there we've run out of time but thanks so much for coming into the studio and giving us all that wonderful information on water safety tips and and again the the webinar for then the world drowning day is on thursday the 25th of july and it's online from half seven to half past eight and you can get the link on the or in the live page or on the connemara community radio facebook page it's a free event yeah and if any if any water groups out there want us to come and speak to them we will speak to them we're not just schools we call it the adults and anybody listen to us and our details are with this the studio here perfect thank you so much for having us lovely to have you thanks miriam harris and michael harris with the rnli here in chesham thank you so much now we're going to have a little bit piece of music we're going to have louis armstrong and what a wonderful world is what a wonderful world day dark sacred night and i think to myself what a wonderful world is the colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by i see friends shaking hands they really say i love you i have paid the price i watched them grow oh what a wonderful world i think to myself what a wonderful that of course was the one and only louis armstrong's what a wonderful world now my next guest is on the line now georgina cruz the national manager with the patient advocacy service good evening georgina and welcome to community matters good evening maureen and thank you for having us on lovely to have you on um georgina now you're going to let listeners and myself included know about the services of the patient advocacy service and what does it actually do what does it provide for people well the patient advocacy service is obviously an advocacy service there and what we do is we provide a free independent and confidential service to people who may have concerns about the care that they've received or they're unhappy with the care that they've received within a public acute hospital or a nursing home and what we do is we provide information and that empowerment advocacy to somebody who may want to make a formal complaint about that care that they've received or if they've been impacted by a patient safety incident we will advise and support people through the review process okay so you'll be the first point of contact then if somebody was looking to to make a formal complaint or to to raise an issue in regard to that yeah they can come to us we have we're a national service and we have a national phone line which is available monday to friday from ten till four so if anybody had any issues they can ring us in the first place okay what we do is inform people i suppose of their rights in relation to their health care and also in relation to making a complaint and then we just explain to them and take them through the complaints processes that might be relevant to their situation and like that if they need that additional support we do offer that one-to-one support to take somebody through like either a complaints process or a patient review incident review process and that could be you know explaining the whole process to somebody improving i suppose their health literacy around the complaints process so that they understand what's going on we can help them to write letters what to include in their correspondence and then if they get responses or they've been through a review process take them through explaining what the response means and if there's recommendations in it what that might mean you know so we take people right through the process and the process can could be complex and in nature and as well as time and communication and correspondence i would imagine um in relation to making a complaint like that yeah it is it can be quite traumatic for people um and depending on what what way they've been impacted you know so our advocates are like fully trained in advocacy and they are also trauma informed so like that they have that ability to take a person through the process and reduce help reduce that kind of stress and maybe the trauma from the complaints process because that can cause further trauma for somebody if they've already experienced that traumatic incident you know um and also what our service will help to do is ensure that the person receives kind of an adequate response from the decision makers or the authorities you know when they've made a complaint so it can make the process kind of more efficient um it enhances that understanding on both sides of the issue and also reduces that confusion or delay you know so it's we're there as a support I suppose for the patient as well but we're also pushing through the system and making sure that the complaints processes and the review processes are efficient themselves to you know provide that is there is there a similarity across all of the the public acute hospitals I'm assuming they were different to the nursing homes but is the at least the process across the public acute hospital service the same if someone was looking to to make a complaint yeah well within within the HSE um originally when we started we're established in 2019 and our initial remit was within public acute hospitals and then following kind of COVID we've expanded into HSE nursing homes and then last year into the private nursing homes so the HSE have their own kind of complaints process um for your service your say so that would go through that and then if there's patient safety incidents there's the instant management framework and that falls in line as well with open disclosure would be part of that so we would take people through that and then the private nursing homes there was a regulation change last year which um I suppose reinforced and strengthened the complaints process within the private nursing homes um it runs very similar to the your services say there's there's four stages to the complaints process so you know across all the HSE services they have the your services say which is their complaints and feedback and then within the nursing homes they have their own complaints processes but they follow a similar stage as the your services say you know so yes there would be consistency of the complaints process across the board between yeah yeah there may not yeah there may not be consistency and how it's applied so that's part of our role is to ensure that you know consistency across all the hospitals and across all the HSE nursing homes that the policies that they have in place are applied in the same way you know and if they're not it's pushing back on that and making sure that they follow their own policies okay so what kind of have you had a lot of contact a lot of people accessing the service since 2019 is it growing year on year yeah it's growing year on year and then um over we had over 2,000 people last year we've had probably about 4,000 people in the last two years come to our service and last year then we would have had an increase in the nursing home contacts that we have because we moved into that area yeah and we do we provide who you know anybody who rings us gets a service so if we're not the right service for them we will try and provide them with any support that we can and signpost them on so if anybody's listening or they think oh that's not where I should be going or maybe that is you know ring us we've asked us on on the lines and they're the experts and they can direct people of where to go and provide them with useful information but yes it's growing it's growing year on year um we're only in since 2019 so we're five years this year and we're out there raising our awareness you know all the time um we're out giving presentations into nursing homes and into hospitals and with the new regional health authorities now we'll be getting in there um making sure that people are aware of us um we have an you know an agreement with the hsc that they're supposed to promote our service to be able to support people you know and then we feed back information into them if we come across issues that people are highlighting with us or we're coming across issues that we're seeing within complaint processes or so you can bring that information back to them we can feed that information back to them so it's it's looking at for us it's about empowering people bringing their voice to the table sharing their lived experience and that leading to that improved quality of care and you know so making sure that all those improvements are there and that it's the patient voice that's being brought there and their lived experience is being taken into account you know um when they're providing health services now you have a lot of information for anyone who would as you say just as an initial point to contact or just to get some further information on your website what's the website address there um georgina yeah the website is www.patientadvocacyservice.ie and our phone line i can give that to you that's open from 10 till 4 monday to friday through lunchtime and that's 0818 293 003 or if people want to email us they can email us info at patientadvocacyservice.ie thank you and it's important to stress that it's independent it's free and it's a confidential service for anyone who just wants you to get information or who wants to take it down the route of making a complaint yes it is like we're we're fully we're fully funded by the department of health but that means we're fully independent of any hse and all other service providers so yes and everything is totally confidential yes it's important to stress that and especially if it's a somebody has been affected and they're they're stressed or they're traumatized by it or they're they've had an issue with it and it's it's not easy to navigate um the process and i'm sure it's cumbersome and that there's a lot of um paperwork and correspondence and information that needs to be sought and presented and included with a complaint in order for it to be taken seriously at the other end yes there is and like that our advocates are there to support the whole way through the process you know and even explain it what if something if a person hasn't got the response it's even explaining what what that means and where they go from there or if if that's as far as they can go with it you know and so it is taking taking it at all stages and advising them on on next steps or no steps or an alternative step depending on the case maybe now the type of issues that's kind of the biggest complaint issues that people have been supportive since you started what would they include um it can range we we have a wide range of kind of issues from the patient safety incident side that can involve you know serious harm or even up to death and then on the other end of the spectrum it could be like phone calls not being returned and a lot of communication issues around you know dignity and respect privacy um quality of of care quality of life issues maybe in with the nursing home you know that can be from food to people's laundry going missing or getting mixed up you know right up to those people that have anxieties or have concerns that where they're not being listened to they're not being addressed okay you know and our staff maybe they're not involved in their care plan or they don't understand their care plan so the the range of complexities is why it can be from small up to very serious impact yeah okay Georgina we'll have to leave it there but thank you so much for taking the time out to come on community matters this evening and telling us there about the services provided by the patient advocacy service yes and thank you for having us thank you thanks Georgina that is Georgina Cruz the national manager with the patient advocacy service you're listening to connemara community radio on 87.8 and 106.1 fm if you have family or friends living away from connemara you can tell them to check out our website on www.connemarafm.com updated weekly now my next guest is Eimear Dowd the regional development officer with the northern and western regional assembly good evening Eimear and welcome to community matters good evening morning good evening to all of your listeners and thank you for inviting me on we're delighted to have you on now you have some big news that you want to tell us about at EU level but before we do just briefly remind listeners what the northern and western regional assembly is and what is the work it's involved in please so for your listeners I suppose essentially there are three three regional assemblies within the country one in the east one in the south and ourselves in the northwest and we're based at a balladrina.com we're a public body and we cover the counties between Donegal and Galway and also Cadmon and so essentially eight counties or nine local authorities and we sit between central government and the local government and essentially we're made up of the elected members that are represent all the local authorities within those eight counties and they sit on our board something similar to what the way the local authorities operate and our role really is there's a couple of roles and one of them is that we develop the region's basic economic strategy which for people who wouldn't be aware it's the investment framework which realigns the development economic goals within this region to the national planning framework we review community and county and city development plans we're a managing authority for the european regional development fund which people may be aware of will be the funding that comes from europe for infrastructural development and then we also are a contact point for inter-regular projects so essentially more in overall we're advocating for economic development through regional policy and development within the northern western region. Okay a big remit big remit across the board there now I know at EU level you were given designated status in relation to the EU regional innovation valley status what does that mean and what does that mean to us first and what does it mean to you secondly? Absolutely so I suppose just to put it in context last December the EU had called for expressions of interest for any county countries or regions who were interested in becoming regional innovation valleys and ourselves along with the other two regional assemblies in the country and the department of enterprise trade and employment submitted an expression of interest and luckily enough in June of this year at the european committee of the regions we were announced that one of the 151 regions directly designated this regional innovation valley tightly and what it essentially means Lorraine is that for the region as a whole as well as the three purposes first first of all it recognizes that our region is a hub for innovation and that as a result then contributes towards economic growth for the region the second is that by attaining this status we now can align our region to other industries that are involved in innovation throughout Europe so our region is what we call a region in transition so we would be working with other countries such as the likes of Greece and Poland and industries there to share knowledge and share information and then the final element will be that there is 160 million being allocated to the EU under two programs for this so the two programs will be european innovation ecosystem which is a horizon your project and then also to the inter-regional innovation investment which is an i3 project and essentially what it means is both in layman terms is that we are going to work together with the various innovative industries both private and public within our region to try and continue to to drive economic growth within the region itself i mean as as even if we look at the central statistics figures that relate back to 2021 if we look at private sector expenditure just on research and development alone within our region it accounted for over 330 million so that's a huge amount of expenditure that's coming into our region and ultimately will be driving this innovation driving this research the people then and industries will reallocate to the region and as a result create a better economy for the whole region itself. So funding as you mentioned there has been allocated to the project and also then the sharing of information with similar regions in transition as yours is or ours is across europe and working closely with those and sharing information and ideas and that all towards economic growth and being driven by that is that something that's relatively new or have you been doing that all along and the sharing of information with other european countries in the similar economic status as ourselves? That's something that will be happening all along Maureen I suppose the allocation of the status just gives us a little bit more connectivity in specific areas because we're involved in european projects and throughout all of europe and again it would be something similar lying into different areas of transition we will be sharing knowledge maybe on smaller scale projects and at the moment take for instance ourselves we're involved in a bio in project which is looking at and wind energy we're also involved in a project called green health which is looking at utilizing our countryside for improving health so we will be on a smaller scale this will give us the opportunity on a higher level on a bigger scale to form those contacts and have that knowledge sharing and transformation not just with ourselves but with the industries within the region itself across other regions. And how closely are they linking in with you around this whole idea of economic growth? Yeah there as part of because of our regional station economic strategy and the state and industries themselves will be aligning their policies as it stands at the moment to our own retail but because of the regional innovation is now a new concept this will be a new element for both us and the industries and the innovation scale as it will be for the european because it is new so a lot of the actual practicalities of it yet have to be ironed out and agreed but it's I suppose again it's one of these new ideas within the EU to try and encourage development within lesser developed regions. And would you know tech innovation is it food security is it you know reducing our reliance on fossil fuels what would be the key things that you'd be looking at tackling or bringing on board first as a priority? Absolutely it's all of the above really Maureen it's looking at what we have here within our sectors or within our regions now so you're looking at maybe advanced manufacturing, civil engineering, agriculture, food production, life sciences, medical devices we've always been a key and safety within the medtech industry blue economy which is becoming more and more to the fore within our industries and the likes of renewable energy so it will be across all of them it won't be any one specific it'll give opportunities to all of them across the board. Will they have opportunities to apply for the funding? Yes there are so those two schemes that I mentioned at the moment the European innovation ecosystems and the inter-regional innovation investments they are currently opened at the moment so they'll have that opportunity but we're also hoping that further resources and further funding will come on board and that to and not just two projects but to inform a networking that would be able to fund an element of that so a lot of it as I said earlier it's because it's new it hasn't been all formally agreed but we are hoping that additional funding will come up as time goes on. And it's not time sensitive it's not going to the funding it's a date for application isn't going to close at the end of this year or anything? No it's not for those two projects yes but for the others no it's not and it's what we will be doing is as we find out more ourselves I'm going to become more aware of the funding we'll be making industries both private and public aware of that. And would you be looking at maybe or hoping to see new businesses and new innovations and new ideas coming on board or new industries setting up in the region as a result of this status? That's what we would be hoping because again it's to build on what's there but the hope would be that people would be able to look further I mean even if you look at climate change and renewable energy there's huge opportunities coming on board so we're hoping exactly that but by fostering innovation and at these and as well the innovation centres that are located with the region by fostering all of that that you will be encouraging new businesses to come on board and the ones that are there but new start-up industries. Okay I'm afraid it's just coming up to eight o'clock so unfortunately just as this is getting interesting we're going to have to say good night but we might have you back on again in the near future and if there's any updates or just to give us you know a six month update on how it's all been going so far and what it's looking like now the landscape of this new innovative development opportunity for the northwest regional area? Great I can of course Maureen and if anybody wants to find out more information we'll be updating our website over the next couple of weeks so it's the nwra.ie. Perfect. Eimear thank you so much for coming on to me and I just have a lovely evening. Thank you Maureen thank you ever so much and a lovely evening to all your listeners. Thanks that was Eimear Dowd the regional development officer with the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. Now I'd like to thank all of my guests this evening before I say good night. They are Mary Mead the assistant director with the Galway Samaritans and Miriam Harris and Michael Harris with the Orna Light Clifton who are in studio this evening. Georgina Cruz the national manager with the Patient Advocacy Service and of course Eimear Dowd there the regional development officer with the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. My thanks to Dermot Dunyon and Tommy Rowe for their support on tech desks as always this evening and my thanks of course to Bree Jo Manley the producer and to the team here at Connemara Community Radio and of course my thanks to you for listening. I do hope you enjoyed this evening's program and that you will stay tuned because we I am off air now in a moment but we are still on air till nine o'clock and coming up next we have the casual news with Bernard Lee followed at about 8 20 by the citizens information slot and Colin Wolfe will be here at 8 30 to close out until nine o'clock. So for me Maureen Corbett and Dermot here in the studio take care and stay safe.