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LOGO CHANGE
You may notice a slight change to our logo. This is to reflect that the '5 Steps Project' is now sustained and mainstreamed as a HSE service, which is delivered in partnership with Family Carers Ireland. From now onward the service will be known as 'Living Well with Dementia in South Tipperary'.
The key components of the service are:
These services and supports are available by phoning 087 0550050 or via our website www.southtipperarydementia.ie. When we were granted funding for this project in 2012 our aims were very ambitious. We wanted to transform the life experience of people with dementia and their families in South Tipperary. We wanted to increase awareness about dementia, to dispels myths, to reduce stigma and to encourage people to come forward earlier for diagnosis and treatment. We were aware that for some families a diagnosis of dementia seemed like a death sentence and we wanted to transform that perception with information and support. But most of all we wanted to provide flexible person centred care for people with dementia to allow them to continue living at home for as long as was possible. Our aims remain unchanged and we hope to continue to be able to develop and improve our service for the benefit of people with dementia and their families in South Tipperary. None of our achievements would have been possible without the amazing work of our consortium. We want to pay particular tribute to all the people with dementia and family carers who were part of the consortium and who contributed endlessly and tirelessly to all our initiatives. The HSE have now taken over the funding of our service and we would like to thank them heartily for doing so. We are very grateful to Michael Fitzgerald, Head of Operations and Service Improvement for Older People, thank you to Chris Monaghan our Area Manager, and thank you to Bridget Farrell our local Manager of Older Persons Services for championing this work. We got great support from Minister Kathleen Lynch T.D and from all our local public representatives, Minister Tom Hayes T.D, Minister Alan Kelly T.D., Deputy Seamus Healy TD and Deputy Mattie McGrath T.D. Last but not least, a special word of mention to our amazing project lead Dr Caitriona Crowe whose dedication and vision inspired us all and contributed to the success of the project. We would like to take this opportunity to wish Caitriona all the best in her new post. " Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." Johan von Goethe
Dementia Understand Together, a new campaign to increase awareness of dementia, was launched October 24th, 2016 at City Hall in Dublin. It is a public support, awareness and information campaign aimed at inspiring people from all sections of society to stand together with the 55,000 Irish people living with dementia.
The campaign seeks to build on the wide range of dementia specific programmes and initiatives already in place around Ireland. It will draw together the people and organisations involved in this work, to join them with wider society, with the health service, with new partners like retail and transport organisations, financial services, and with neighbours and friends, to create a national movement which will help support those living with dementia and their loved ones. For more information click on the link below: www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/olderpeople/dementia/About-Understand-Together/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Read the written submission by Dr. Caitriona Crowe to the Joint Committee on Health and Children Meeting Thursday 16th July 2015 Good morning. My name is Dr Caitriona Crowe and I am the Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry in South Tipperary. I would like to thank the Chairperson and you as the Members of the Committee for your invitation to tell you about our innovative dementia project, which I lead, called The Five Steps to Living Well with Dementia in South Tipperary. Read more Dáil committee told of need to help secure funding for South Tipp pilot project
Four days after guiding Tipperary to the Munster senior hurling title, manager Eamon O’Shea was in Leinster House highlighting the success of a pilot dementia project in South Tipperary.
A professor at NUI Galway, O’Shea has been evaluating the project - Five Steps to Living Well with Dementia in South Tipperary - and was urging TDs and Senators to help secure future funding for the prjoect as well us using it as a model for dementia treatment across the country. He was joined by project lead Dr Caitriona Crowe, who outlined the success to date of the scheme to members of the Joint Committee on Health and Children.Read more http://www.nationalist.ie/news/local-news/dail-committee-told-of-need-to-help-secure-funding-for-south-tipp-pilot-project-1-6865262 
Living well with Dementia at you Library
A leaflet produced by the Tipperary County Council Library Services and the 5 Steps to Living Well with Dementia Project is available at your local library. it outlines the supports available there and recommends books for Adults and Children about dementia. Pick one up in your local library and Check out other events taking place on a weekly basis. Project StaffAnne Quinn and Peggy O Sullivan are the point of contact for the project and job share in the Clinical Nurse Specialist in Dementia role.
Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government Alan Kelly Visits the project today 22/06/15.
Information and Awareness Event Highlights Needs of 48,000 people living with Dementia in Ireland.
Project Tackles Stigma Associated with Dementia and Promotes Active Citizenship in our Communities. Research on carers across South Tipperary found 88% are spouses living alone as a couple. Our awareness meeting in Cashel, last week, highlighted the success of the project in transforming the life experience of people with dementia and their families, increasing public awareness and encouraging people to come forward earlier for diagnosis and treatment. According to Project Lead and Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry Dr. Caitriona Crowe: “Over 48,000 people are living with dementia in Ireland, a number which will double by 2031 and more than treble by 2041. This is a demographic time bomb at the heart of communities across Ireland but we want to emphasise that dementia is something that you live with, not necessarily die of. This project demonstrates that by providing flexible person-centred care in the home, people who wish to remain outside of institutional care can continue to live at home for as long as possible.“ Speaking at the conference Eamon O’Shea, Professor of Economics at NUI Galway, said: “The next 10 years are critical in how we deal with dementia as a nation. We have to embrace the notion of older people with dementia as key members of our community, and break down the stigma around dementia. This translates as connecting people with the community within which they live and empowering them to play an active role in their level of care and care needs in the home.” Enabling people with dementia to continue living within the home relies on the critical support of carers. A survey of over 50 carers living across South Tipperary, released as part of the conference, highlighted the challenges of old age and concerns about end of life care for their loved ones. It found that the majority of carers are spouses (88%), living alone as a couple and half are over 65 years of age (52%). It also found that only half of carers were confident they could manage end of life care. Commenting on the findings Dr. Crowe said: “While there was no surprise in the findings from our survey, it highlighted the real needs of carers in our communities. These carers are generally very happy in their caring role for a loved one but also suffer from feelings of exhaustion and loneliness and worry about not being able to cope if the condition deteriorates or at the end of life. The provision of information and support by a healthcare professional to discuss these issues through the programme , and the provision of dementia support workers to people with dementia has proved vital in addressing most of these needs. These supports are crucial for carers all over Ireland as this is a crucial element to ensuring that people living with dementia are able to live a full life in their own home and community rather than in inpatient care.” Binchy's Solicitors - fiscal hosts to the projectOur warmest thanks to Binchy's Solicitors Clonmel. When we secured this funding three years ago to improve the lives of people with Dementia and their families in South Tipperary, Fred Binchy very kindly agreed that their firm would act as financial host for the project. They have very generously declined a fee for this valuable work . This has enabled us to fund more dementia support worker hours for people availing of the service. Thank you so much Fred.
Sustainability of the 5 steps Project Monday 30th March 2015 Amazingly we are now in year three of the pilot project "The 5 Steps to Living Well with Dementia in South Tipperary". Our current funding will end in October, but all our team is very committed to ensuring that the services we have worked so hard to develop, will continue and are mainstreamed. The goal of this pilot project has been to transform the life experience of people with dementia and their families in South Tipperary. We ensured people with dementia and family carers were central to our planning and development in order to deliver a service that really addressed their needs and to enable us to develop an effective model of caring for people with dementia across the South Tipperary community. We also sought to increase public awareness about dementia, dispel myths, reduce stigma and encourage people to come forward earlier for diagnosis and treatment. But most of all, we focussed on providing flexible person-centred care to ensure people with dementia were respected as visible, participating citizens within their community and could remain living at home with a good quality of life. Our pilot project has been independently evaluated by Professor Eamon O'Shea and Professor Suzanne Cahill and the feedback from participating families, people with dementia and their carers has also been very positive. We have developed a service for people with dementia that is responsive, flexible and highly cost effective. We now offfer unique services including a Dementia Support Worker Initiative and a Memory Technology Library. We also have dedicated personnel provided as part of the project, in the roles of a Community Connector and a Clinical Nurse Specialist, who make a massive difference to dementia care in South Tipperary. We are working very hard to ensure that this fantastic service is sustained and mainstreamed and indeed developed further to meet the needs of the ageing population as the numbers of pople with dementia in Ireland double. We welcome all sugestions you may have to help us realise this dream. Caitriona. Donations to the project
Dolores Costigan of Curves Clonmel raised €2000 for the "5 Steps" project by running Zumba classes in the Show Grounds Shopping Centre Clonmel. Dolores raised these funds of her own initiative and we are incredibly grateful to her for this huge donation to help our work. Pictured here are Dolores with Julian Smyth Manager of the Show Grounds Shopping Centre with Peggy O Sullivan Community Connector and Dr Caitriona Crowe Project Lead.
Michael Allen and his daughters Cheryl and Jane from Carrick on Suir visited the project today and presented us with a donation of €1400 to support the work of the 5 Steps Project. We are hugely indebted to them for this very generous act.
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Memory Technology Library Film
Genio has a released a new film promoting assistive technology featuring the Memory Technology Library. Please click on link below. www.genio.ie/dementia-AT-film 
Morning Ireland RTE Radio 1 How can the lives of people with Dementia be improved? Dr Caitriona Crowe, member of the National Dementia Strategy Working Group, discusses a pilot approach to improving the life experiences of people with dementia and Alzheimers disease http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradiowebpage.html#!type=radio&rii=9%3A20814180%3A48%3A16%2D07%2D2015%3A Some of the Recent Print Media Reports on the 5 Steps Project Experts warn of Dementia A Time Bomb in The Next 25 Years http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/experts-warn-of-demehttp://utv.ie/News/2015/06/15/Tipp-project-helps-people-with-dementia-live-in-own-homes-39120ntia-a-time-bomb-in-the-next-25-years-1.2222876#.VXdl1-fgIPc.facebook RTE radio 1 
Project featured on UTV Ireland News 'live at 10'
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About South Tipperary Dementia Project
Imagine being asked as frontline clinicians how you thought the services and supports your patients receive could be enhanced and improved and then being given significant funding to deliver that change? Well that is exactly what happened to us in South Tipperary through the Genio dementia project.
Genio is a new organization, founded in 2008, that combines philanthropic funding from Atlantic Philanthropies with state funding from the HSE and the Department of Health to support innovative service delivery in mental health, in disability and now in dementia. Genio’s focus is very much on keeping people who use the service at the core of decision-making and on supporting them to lead valued lives in their own communities.
Funds of over 4 million euro were committed to the project, which would run for over 3 years in 4 different geographical sites, and Genio invited groups to form consortia to bid for that funding, with people with dementia and their carers being central to that process. Consortia were also expected to include professionals involved in dementia care and voluntary and community organisations which could provide enhanced support to people with dementia in their own community.
Genio is a new organization, founded in 2008, that combines philanthropic funding from Atlantic Philanthropies with state funding from the HSE and the Department of Health to support innovative service delivery in mental health, in disability and now in dementia. Genio’s focus is very much on keeping people who use the service at the core of decision-making and on supporting them to lead valued lives in their own communities.
Funds of over 4 million euro were committed to the project, which would run for over 3 years in 4 different geographical sites, and Genio invited groups to form consortia to bid for that funding, with people with dementia and their carers being central to that process. Consortia were also expected to include professionals involved in dementia care and voluntary and community organisations which could provide enhanced support to people with dementia in their own community.
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