Sligo Leitrim Mental Health Services team wins HSE Excellence Award for new innovation to improve healthcare

Sligo Leitrim Mental Health Services team has won a HSE Excellence Award for their project Development of a Crisis Resolution Team (Mental Health).

The awards, which took place on Thursday, November 30, are an opportunity to showcase and celebrate examples of the great work that happens every day across our health service. They aim to encourage and inspire health service staff to develop and improve care and services for patients.

CH CDLMS Older Person and Digital Health team has also won an award in the category ‘Using a digital solution to provide a better service: Projects that utilised a digital solution in order to improve a process in a specific area.

They have won with their project titled: ‘Community Healthcare Bed Utilisation Application’.

Dr Elizabeth Gethins, Consultant Psychiatrist Crisis Resolution Team Sligo Leitrim Mental Health Services said: “Working on this project has been so rewarding for all of the team.

“We are providing a realistic alternative to admission or presentation to the Emergency Dept for people experiencing a mental health crisis.

“It is privilege to work intensively with people in their own homes, and feedback from service users and their loved ones has been very positive.

“We are delighted to receive this award, and to have the recognition that this award brings both to mental health service provision, and to provision of services in a rural area. We look forward to enhancing the service further over the coming months and years.”

A diverse range of innovative projects were entered into this year’s awards. Examples include;

• New supports for women following a traumatic birth
• Specialised home supports for people experiencing mental health crisis
• New ways of working to support people with a rare disease
• Improved efficiency on tracking available hospital beds and theatre time

Bernard Gloster, HSE CEO, commending the awards’ nominees, said: “The dedication and commitment to delivering high quality patient care is visibly demonstrated through this year’s entries submitted by staff around the country.

“Each project clearly reflects our core values of care, compassion, trust and learning. Well done and thank you to all those shortlisted as well as today’s winners. It is your work that helps pave the way to a brighter future for Ireland’s health service.”

Anne Marie Hoey, HSE National Director of HR, highlighted the positive outcomes achieved.

She said: “As well as providing an opportunity to celebrate the great work of staff happening every day, the Excellence Awards are an important channel to share learnings with our colleagues across the health service.

“Through this pooling of knowledge and expertise, the projects inspire a sense of staff pride, teamwork and collaboration that help to shape the positive culture of our organisation.

“This will positively impact the overall environment for our staff whilst improving outcomes for the people who rely on our care and support.”