News within Clinical Medicine
Dr Clíona Ní Cheallaigh recipient of Sláintecare Integration Fund Award
Associate Professor Cliona Ní Cheallaigh, from the Department of Clinical Medicine at the St James's Hospital Campus, is a consultant in general medicine and infectious diseases.
The funded project led by Ní Cheallaigh is 'Inclusion Health' which is an approach to clinical care and research that seeks to directly address the dramatic health inequity experienced by people who are socially excluded, for example: people who are homeless, Travellers, drug users and prisoners amongst others. Socially excluded people often experience difficulty accessing the specialist healthcare they need, and flexible, innovative approaches are needed to make sure that the care reaches the patients. The HSE and Genio have recently funded a two-year pilot of Inclusion Health teams in the Mater and St James's Hospital.
Dr Ní Cheallaigh said: "The Sláintecare Integration Fund award will mean that the Inclusion Health team can expand to include specialist outreach nurses in diabetes, neurology and venous disease who can go out and provide specialist care to socially excluded people in locations where they feel comfortable and can provide training and support to nurses, GPs and social care workers who work in homeless and addiction services. The specialist nurses will also provide training and support to their hospital-based colleagues in managing the complexities of people living in social exclusion."
Under Sláintecare the successful projects must demonstrate innovative ways in which citizens can engage in their own health; represent best practice in the management of chronic diseases and caring for older people, and encourage innovations in shift of care to the community or promote hospital avoidance.
Dr Clíona Ní Cheallaigh
You can read more about Inclusion Health at