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PLRG members participate in the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Maternity & Perinatal Loss Network Meeting 2024
Members of the PLRG attended the Hospice Friendly Hospitals Maternity & Perinatal Loss Network Meeting 2024 on Wednesday 06 November in Dublin. The meeting featured presentations on education, training, research, and initiatives taking place in maternity settings across the country.
Alice Anderson, Programme Manager – Hospice Friendly Hospitals (HFH), Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF), welcomed everyone to the meeting and provided updates from the IHF and HFH. Marita Hennessy, Postdoctoral Researcher in the PLRG, shared findings from a mapping study of perinatal bereavement care education and training initiatives for maternity staff in Ireland, undertaken with the support of the National Women and Infants Health Programme. This was followed by a rich discussion on what should happen next to advance these findings and effect change on the ground. Dr Fiona McElligott, Consultant in Paediatric Palliative Care Medicine at Children’s Health Ireland then provided national palliative care updates.
After the morning break, Dr Amanda Roberts, Bereavement Development Officer at the IHF, provided an overview of the development of online training for level 2 service providers on grief informed care. Dr Emily O’Connor, PhD Student in the PLRG, then shared insights into maternity staff views on facilitators and barriers to implementing a national perinatal mortality review tool in Ireland. This study forms part of the Féileacáin-funded ACHIEVE project (Appraise and CHange PerInatal Mortality EVEnts: Structured evaluation and implementation of a national perinatal mortality review tool for Ireland).
In the afternoon, Lucy Andrews, Development Officer - HFH, provided an update on Design & Dignity projects in maternity settings. Kathryn Woods, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Bereavement and Loss subsequently provided insights into their experiences – “the long road” – of developing a maternity bereavement suite at the Midlands Regional Hospital, Mullingar. Their experiences and learnings mirrored many of those we observed when putting the ‘Places and Spaces’ case studies together for people who wish to improve physical environments or spaces within maternity services; work undertaken as part of the RE:CURRENT-KTA project. During the final talk, Dr Coleen Cormack, Senior Clinical Psychologist, Cork University Maternity Hospital, Ireland South Women & Infants Directorate, spoke about her role as Psychologist for Staff Support & Wellbeing within the Directorate, including the various initiatives she has implemented, including TRiM (Trauma Risk Management).
The HFH meeting was attended by Professor Keelin O’Donoghue, Marita Hennessy PhD, Dr Oana Marian, Dr Emily O’Connor and Niamh Spillane from the PLRG. Many thanks to the IHF for its continuing support of bereavement standards in maternity services, and to Alice Anderson and Lucy Andrews for organising this HFH Maternal and Perinatal Loss Network Meeting and for the opportunity to share our work.
More information
Hospice Friendly Hospitals (HFH) is one of the Irish Hospice Foundation’s pioneering programmes. It was established in 2007 to introduce a strategic and focused approach to improving of end-of-life care in acute hospitals in partnership with the HSE. The programme has several strands, including the coordination of networks for hospital staff to promote improvements in end-of-life care; of which the Maternity & Perinatal Network is one of four. It also includes the coordination of Design & Dignity which is transforming the way hospital spaces are designed.
Marita Hennessy PhD
Dr Emily O'Connor