Archives for September 2020

Public Health Measures
The Government announced on Friday that the county of Dublin will be placed on Level 3 of the Framework for Restrictive Measures. This action is based on a review of the current public health advice and is in response to the deteriorating situation with the virus in Dublin over the past number of weeks. Dublin will remain at Level 3 until 9th October, at which point the situation will be reviewed by the Government based on public health advice.

The rest of the country remains at Level 2 of the Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with COVID-19 available here.

Symptoms & Testing TV ad
The HSE’s new COVID-19 Symptoms and Testing TV ad went live on Saturday, 12^th August. The ad sets out the common symptoms of COVID-19 – cough, fever, breathing difficulties, changes to your sense of taste or smell – and encourages people to self-isolate and phone their GP if they have symptoms. The ad also highlights that the GP coronavirus consultation and COVID-19 test are free. You can watch our Symptoms & Testing ad on our YouTube channel.

 

Remote Healthcare – new video
Over the coming months, anyone who has a healthcare appointment may be given the option to have a phone or video consultation instead of attending in person. This short video helps to explain how this works.

 

Public Health Information
As always, for the most up to date information and advice on Coronavirus, please go to: https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/ and https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/. Clinical and professional guidance relating to COVID-19 is available on www.hpsc.ie where you’ll find up to date guidance for healthcare settings and non-clinical settings.

Public Health Measures – You can view the latest national public health measures here.

 

Public Health Advice Information for People Who Have Just Arrived in Ireland – Easy Read Version
This easy read booklet is about coming to Ireland from another country, and explains the rules to stop Coronavirus (COVID-19) from spreading.

This booklet is also available in Slovak, Czech and Romanian available here, with further translations available soon.

 

Living with COVID-19 Posters
The latest COVID-19 posters, “Step up and step back” and “Masking for a friend” are available for downloading and printing. We are grateful for your help in sharing these important messages.

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COVID-19 Resources for Schools and Parents Schools can download and print these posters to raise awareness about preventing the spread of coronavirus in schools and other settings. For more information and resources for schools and parents, please see gov.ie/backtoschool

 

New Emergency Card Scheme for Family Carers
Family Carers Ireland (FCI), in partnership with An Garda Siochana, the National Ambulance Service Community First Responder Schemes, The Irish Red Cross and The Order of Malta has developed a new Emergency Card Scheme for family carers.  If a family carer is involved in an accident, has an unplanned hospital admission or is suddenly taken ill, there is a risk that the person who needs their care and support could be left at home alone and uncared for. The Emergency Card Scheme (free to family carers with access to a 24/7 emergency helpline) is intended to give peace of mind to family carers as well as ensuring that the person they care for remains safe in such emergencies. It involves completion of an Emergency Care plan by the family carer including nominating two people (family members/friends) to take over their caring role in such an emergency and the issuing by FCI of an Emergency Card to family carers who sign up to the scheme. Where a family carer cannot nominate two people or where their nominated person cannot be reached in the event of an emergency then FCI will link with other agencies/service providers and/or emergency services to ensure a care plan is put in place for the cared for person.

You can download the Emergency Care Plan here. For more details on the scheme, please go to www.familycarers.ie or call Family Carer’s Ireland Freephone Careline 1800 24 07 24. The scheme is kindly supported by Irish Life and the Dormant Accounts Fund.

 

Community Swabbers
The HSE is recruiting for the role of Community Swabber to work in the COVID-19 Community Testing Teams. The Community Swabber will take samples from the nose and throat of people who are being tested for COVID-19, and carry out other administrative duties, as part of the Community Testing Teams around the country. Swabbing can take place in Community Test Centres, home-based testing, outbreak testing, residential care facilities and specific work locations. The roles will primarily be filled on a 12-month contract basis and the employer will be the HSE.

You can read more about this role and how to apply here.

 

Dementia: Understand Together – Champions’ Café
Join us on September 30th from 12.30-1.30pm for our first Virtual Champion’s Café to:

• Hear people with dementia and community champions talk about their experience with dementia;
• Find out the actions we can all take to support a person with dementia in communities, also now during COVID – 19; and
• Get advice from a health care professional on how we can all prepare ourselves for the colder months and stay well.

Places are limited, so please book your place by September 23^rd through this link.

The current coronavirus outbreak has been particularly difficult for people living with dementia, their family and friends.  Many have been cocooning or staying at home to minimise the risk of contracting COVID-19. To protect people with dementia from COVID-19, some services had to be changed, and they may also have been missing important social connections and activities crucial for wellbeing.

 

Ageing Voices Survey
Sing Ireland, the national group singing support agency, and Creative Aging International have come together to produce resources and best practice training programmes for musicians, carers and health care teams working with older people. To assist with on-going planning, they are inviting people to complete a survey accessible here about what type of tools or training might help. The survey can be completed before September 17^th.

 

Public Health Information:
As always, for the most up to date information and advice on Coronavirus, please go to: https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/ and https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/. Clinical and professional guidance relating to COVID-19 is available on www.hpsc.ie where you’ll find up to date guidance for healthcare settings and non-clinical settings.

Public Health Measures
The special health measures that were in place in Kildare were lifted on the 31^st August. We are, however, still experiencing some increases in the rate of COVID around the country. Advice and restrictions are continuously being reviewed with recommendations being made by NPHET and the Government. These measures aim to protect our priorities – caring for vulnerable people, keeping health services open and getting children back to education.

 You can view the latest national public health measures here.

 

Protecting your Child from COVID-19
COVID-19 can affect children as well as adults, but cases of coronavirus are much less common in children. Children generally get a milder infection than adults or older people. Often, they have no symptoms. Children have rarely been the person who brought coronavirus into a household when household spread has happened. They are less likely than adults to spread infection to other people. You can find out more about protecting your child from coronavirus here.

 For more information and resources for schools and parents, please see: www.gov.ie/backtoschool

 For more information on protecting your child from COVID-19, please see: www.gov.ie/adviceforparents

 

Updated COVID-19 Advice Posters for Entering a Building, GP Surgery or Pharmacy
Updated posters have been created and can be used by GP surgeries, pharmacies and other buildings/places where visitors should be alerted not to enter if they have COVID-19 symptoms. The posters are available under the ‘Posters’ drop down menu available here.

 

Alternatively, you can access the posters directly from the following links:

COVID-19 Poster: Advice for entering GP surgery

COVID-19 Poster: Advice for entering pharmacy

COVID-19 Poster: Advice for entering building

 

COVID-19 Video for Members of the Roma Community

A new video has been made for members of the Roma Community explaining what to do if travelling into Ireland from another country.

 

Escape Your Chair Campaign

The Irish Heart Foundation’s Escape Your Chair Heart Month campaign supported by HSE Health & Wellbeing is calling on the nation to Escape Your Chair by moving for a minute each hour during the day. A survey conducted by Ipsos MRBI in early August found that more than half of all Irish workers are now working from home, with 53% of them sitting down for longer than when they commuted to work. While one in four are remaining sedentary for at least three hours longer than when they commuted to work.  The evidence shows that being sedentary for long periods of time increases your risk of developing heart disease.

For more information about the campaign visit: www.EscapeYourChair.ie and for tips about maintaining a healthy heart while working from home go to: https://bit.ly/2EV70MW

 

Public Health Information:

As always, for the most up to date information and advice on Coronavirus, please go to: https://www2.hse.ie/coronavirus/ and https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/. Clinical and professional guidance relating to COVID-19 is available on www.hpsc.ie where you’ll find up to date guidance for healthcare settings and non-clinical settings.

The advice from the HSE on wearing face covering is as follows:

 

A cloth face covering should cover the nose and go under the chin and:

 

• fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face
• be secured with ties or ear loops
• include at least 2 layers of fabric
• allow for breathing without restriction

 

Please see the Public Health advice on wearing face coverings which is available on the HSE Website (https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/face-masks-disposable-gloves.html#cloth-face-coverings).

 

gov.ie have provided a video explaining how to safely wear a face covering https://youtu.be/OBR0udoIaiY