The Laois/Offaly Leader
An Offaly Centre for Independent Living Ltd/ Offaly Personal Assistant Services Ltd Publication
This newsletter is available online and in large font
March/April 2014
Upcoming coffee morning and film screening:
All Leaders are invited to attend a coffee morning on Wednesday 11th June 2014 in the OCIL/OPAS Ltd offices at 11am.
On the morning we will be showing our documentary, ‘My Life With Me in It’ which was produced by Leader and award-winning filmmaker Paddy Slattery.
For more information contact Sarah on 057 9322832 or email
OCIL Ltd staff and Personal Assistants to do Mini Marathon in aid of ISARC.
Fifteen Personal Assistants and three staff members will be walking the Women’s Mini Marathon on Monday, 2nd June 2014 in aid of ISARC, the Irish Sarcoidosis Support Network. ISARC offer support and advice to sufferers, their families and carers affected by this disease.
Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease which affects thousands of Irish people. It can occur in any organ of the body but primarily affects the lungs, eyes, lymph nodes and skin.
Deirdre Martin, who is a Training Programme Coordinator with OCIL Ltd, has Sarcoidosis and has recently undergone treatment for the condition. ‘Dee’ is a very hard worker, a tremendous asset to our company and a friend to everyone who meets her and we hope she knows how much she means to all of us here at OCIL Ltd.
If you would like to sponsor the lovely ladies who are doing the marathon, please contact NoirinChalouche in the OCIL Ltd offices at 057 93 22832 or email
Empowerment Plans: What are they?
By this stage, the majority of Leaders have been issued with ‘Empowerment Plans’. The purpose of these empowerment plans is to monitor the individual Leader’s needs between reviews so that if the Leader’s needs change, for example owing to the progression of disability or the development of a secondary/medical condition e.g. diabetes or epilepsy, that OCIL Ltd & OPAS Ltd are made aware of this and can provide training for Personal Assistants as appropriate.
At the end of each week, it is the Leader’s own responsibility to fill out their empowerment plan and to send it into the OCIL Ltd/OPAS Ltd offices in Clonminch at the end of every month. Sean Rickard (Leader Coordinator) and Deirdre Martin (Nurse Advisor) then examine the Empowerment Plans to ensure that Leaders needs are being met and whether the Personal Assistants need training that will enable them to cater for these needs.
The Empowerment Plans are then kept on the Leader’s file for as long as the Leader is a client with OCIL Ltd/OPAS Ltd.
If you have any concerns or difficulties regarding your empowerment plan, please do not hesitate to contact Sean Rickard on 057 93 22832.
What is the Offaly Leader Forum?
What is a Leader Forum?
A Leader Forum is a platform where Leaders can meet to discuss issues that affect their everyday lives e.g. transport, employment, access to social opportunities, etc.
The members of the Leader Forum dictate their own agenda and decide what their activities should be.
At present the Offaly Leader Forum meets once a month.
The aims of the Offaly Leader Forum are:
- To promote the philosophy of independent living in the wider community
- To prevent Leaders in Offaly from becoming isolated from each other by organising social events such as nights out, coffee mornings etc.
- To address issues such as employment, accessibility and discrimination
- To give Leaders a voice in the provision of their P.A. service
- To promote inclusion and integration.
Members of the Offaly Leader Forum are:
Catherine Molloy (Chairperson)
Emmet Grogan (Vice Chairperson)
Sarah Fitzgerald (Secretary)
Bernadette Clavin (Vice Secretary)
Tom Milne (Treasurer)
Karen Daly (Vice Treasurer)
Paul Hickey & Noeleen O'Rourke (Public Relations Officers)
Sinead Flanagan
Sharon Tracey
Sean Rickard
Kathryn Moran
Jennifer Grey
Michael Nestor
To find out more about the Offaly Leader Forum, please contact Sarah Fitzgerald on 057 9322832 or email .
The minutes of all Leader Forum meetings are available from Sarah Fitzgerald ()
PQASSO Update:
As you may be aware, Offaly Centre for Independent Living Ltd and Offaly Personal Assistant Services Ltd are currently using the ‘PQASSO’ method as a means of ensuring that a high quality service is delivered to our Leaders.
PQASSO, which stands for Practical Quality Assurance Systems for Small Organisations , is a straight forward, user-friendly quality assurance system intended to help organisations run more effectively and efficiently. It offers a flexible approach to quality which allows organisations to work at their own pace. It helps organisations to take a systematic look at what they do, identify areas where they are doing well and not so well, and decide exactly where improvements are needed. It helps organisations plan, budget and allocate the resources for making these improvements over a realistic time period. In this way, OCIL Ltd & OPAS Ltd will be enabled to improve their services over time.
There are twelve areas that are generally assessed by PQASSO, which are Planning, Governance, Leadership and Management, User-centred service, Managing People, Learning and Development, Managing Money, Managing Resources, Communications and Promotions, Working with Others, Monitoring & Evaluation and Results. The PQASSO team have met the standards outlined in Communication & Promotion and Learning & Development and are currently working on Quality Area 1 (Planning) and Quality Area 5 (Managing People).
The PQASSO ‘Team’ is made up of Leaders, Personal Assistants, Staff and Board Representatives and its members are NoirinChalouche (staff member & PQASSO Champion), Aoife Fox & Rita Dillane (Staff), Michael Nestor & Jim Buckley (Board of Directors), Karen Daly & Kathryn Moran (Personal Assistants), and Sinead Flanagan & Martina Dunne (Leaders).
Emma Fogarty Continues to Spread Awareness of EB
Emma Fogarty, who is a Leader with us at OCIL Ltd, spoke to Ryan Tubridy on the 8th April last about how her rare skin condition, EpidermolysisBullosa (EB) has affected her life and how her positive outlook has enabled her to maintain a ‘glass half full’ attitude to life despite being in constant pain.
Wikipedia provides the following explanation of EB:
The human skin consist of two layers: an outermost layer called the epidermis and a layer underneath called the dermis. In individuals with healthy skin, there are protein anchors between these two layers that prevent them from moving independently from one another (shearing). In people born with EB, the two skin layers lack the protein anchors that hold them together, resulting in extremely fragile skin—even only minor mechanical friction (like rubbing or pressure) or trauma will separate the layers of the skin and form blisters and painful sores. Sufferers of EB have compared the sores with third-degree burns. Furthermore, as a complication of the chronic skin damage, people suffering from EB have an increased risk of malignancies (cancers) of the skin.
In the interview, Emma credited her parents for their diligence and love throughout her childhood: ‘They looked after me and went as they could,’
Emma has survived in spite of the odds against her and is an ambassador for Debra Ireland. She alsoreceived a ‘People of the Year’ Award in 2010 in honour of the work she has done raising awareness about EB. Children with EB are often referred to as ‘Butterfly Children’, as their skin is as delicate as a butterfly’s wings and can tear at the slightest touch.
OCIL Ltd / OPAS Ltd set up Subcommittees:
The following sub committees have been put in place with a view to enhancing and developing the governance and management systems in OCIL Ltd / OPAS Ltd.
Finance sub-committee:
Ray Allen, Frances Berry, Rita Dillane, Gabriel Hayden, Michael Nestor
Meeting scheduled for the last Thursday of every month.
Supervisors sub-committee:
NoirinChalouche, Aoife Fox, Tina Kelly, Sean Rickard, Gabriel Hayden, Michael Nestor
Meeting scheduled for every second Monday.
Clochan House sub-committee:
Anna White, Sean Rickard, Leaders who are available on the day, Michael Nestor
Meeting scheduled for the last Monday of every month.
Web Page sub-committee:
Emmet Grogan., Kathryn Moran, Catherine Molloy, Karen Daly, Paul Hickey, Noreen O’Rourke, 2 Leaders from Clochan House ,Sean Rickard, Board Member (to be decided)
Leader Forum.
Catherine Molloy (Chairperson), Emmet Grogan (Vice-Chairperson), Sarah Fitzgerald (Secretary), Bernadette Clavin (Vice-Secretary), Tom Milne (Treasurer), Karen Daly (Vice Treasurer), Paul Hickey & Noeleen O’Rourke (PRO), Jennifer Grey Sharon Tracey, Lorna Burke, Janet Gill, Michael Nestor, Sean Rickard, Sinead Flanagan, Kathryn Moran
Are You Interested in playing Boccia for OCIL Ltd?
Offaly Sports Partnership is pleased to announce the re-establishment of the Midland Boccia League in partnership with Westmeath Sports Partnership. At present the plan is to implement the league over a few months, implementing it on round-robin basis where points will be accumulated from each league outing allowing for playoffs, semi finals and finals to occur. On commencement of the League, there will be a 4-6 week gap between each league outing.
If you are interested in joining a team representing OCIL Ltd, please contact Sarah Fitzgerald at for further details.
Offaly Centre for Independent Living Ltd/Offaly Personal Assistant Services Ltd,
Clonminch Road, Tullamore, Co, Offaly.
Phone 057 9322832, Fax 057 9360341,
Website
Email:
Join us on Facebook!
Offaly Centre for Independent Living Ltd is funded by the HSE
Offaly Personal Assistant Services Ltd is funded by the Department of Social Protection