General Grants

In 2009 alone, approximately €100,000 was donated to nearly 30 patient care projects. The General Grants funded the following examples:

Virtual reality system for rehabilitation

The arrival of tele-visual equipment in the Occupational Therapy Department in Beaumont Hospital has proved once again that technology has a real role to play in all aspects of modern healthcare. The OT Department also received many other useful tools, equipment and publications as part of the Beaumont Hospital Foundation ‘Minor Grants’ programme.

According to Dearbhla Birdy, Occupational Therapy Manager - “It is with much delight that I can confirm that our department has benefitted hugely as a result of the large number of grants that have been awarded.”

As a profession, Occupational Therapy does rely heavily on being able to access up-to-date literature, therapeutic equipment and technology. Everything from specialist equipment to deal with younger patients, right through to specific textbooks were secured through the programme. This ultimately contributes to improved patient care levels throughout the Department.

The arrival of the equipment was probably the big story, it has a real clinical role to play in OT and research has shown that there are many benefits to be achieved with the therapeutic use of consoles for visual-perceptual, postural control and upper-limb function.
The value of the Foundation really shines through when it can make lots of small changes to a department that result in a very big difference overall.

More life-savers = more lives saved

The CPR Training Department in Beaumont Hospital received a huge boost with the purchase of extra mannequins or ‘training dummies’ to help train people on CPR lifesaving courses. Learning how to resuscitate patients is a vital aspect of modern emergency care and one which all in the community can get involved in. With the assistance of the Foundation, the Department bought more mannequins to use on their extensive training programmes.

This CPR Training Department runs excellent courses for all staff in the hospital. Recently they held a ‘Friends and Family’ course in October which trained up to 30 people fully in the art of CPR.

The new mannequins made a big difference said Celine McPhillips, Co-Ordinator and Resuscitation Officer in the CPR Training Department - “the new equipment has made a huge difference, helping us train more people and ultimately save more lives”