St Luke’s General Hospital in Kilkenny Celebrates Older Person's Week

St Luke’s Hospital are celebrating Older Person’s Week, from February 14 to 18, with events and seminars.

This week will also mark the fifth year of the Geriatric Emergency Medicine Service (GEMS) in St. Luke’s Hospital.  

On each consecutive day during the week a different topic related to Older Persons will be highlighted with information stands, presentations and fun competitions in the foyer of St. Luke’s Hospital for staff. Monday starts with cakes and bakes for the GEMS Birthday Celebrations. 

GEMS Occupational Therapist, Danielle Reddy, said, “We are looking forward to celebrating the wonderful GEMS service we started in 2017 to ensure the patient journey for older adults is of a gold standard as well as sharing our skills, knowledge and expertise in frailty and older persons care. We want to share our experiences, educate our staff on how to care for everybody through individualised pathways and have a bit of fun along the way. Over the past 5 years we have intervened with over 7000 people in this process.” 

The focus of the week will be on dementia, delirium, falls and the local community agencies who support patients on their discharge home.  

The GEMS in St Luke’s Hospital helps and treats patients over 70 years of age. The main purpose of the GEMS team is to provide early identification of frailty. The service establishes an individualised care plan for older patients from the start of their hospital journey while endeavouring to ensure they have the required support for their needs when discharged home.

St Luke’s Hospital work on a home first ethos and the main priority is to support both the patient and their family in accessing any specific supports to enable them to continue residing in their own home.  

Danielle went on to say, “This week will be full of information on the common problems we see with older adults that present to the hospital. The GEMS service has not only been a turning point for care for our older patients but a joy to work in. It’s been hard for staff to see joy in their work the past two years but that’s not the case in the GEMS team. We are here to provide the right care, at the right time, from the right people.” 

The service has been developing over the past few years, to a hospital to home model of care and is now part of the ICPOP (Integrated Care Programme for Older Persons). The GEMS service in St Luke’s Hospital has also  won an achievement award from the HSE and the Ireland East Hospital Group 

The multidisciplinary GEMS team is fully focused on trying to reverse the adverse effects of frailty to allow people to live more independently at home. 

The National Integrated Care Programme, Older Person (NICP OP) improves the life of older persons by providing access to integrated care and support that is planned around their needs and choices, supporting them to live well in their own homes and communities 

For more information or questions regarding GEMS and the care of Older Persons in St Luke’s Hospital please email SLK.GEMS@maila.hse.ie.