‘Caring for our Community’ Focus of NUI Galway’s new Public Lecture Series

Áras Moyola
May 13 2014 Posted: 09:54 IST

 First lecture to focus on suicide prevention

NUI Galway’s School of Nursing and Midwifery will commence a new and innovative community outreach initiative this semester, focusing on sharing knowledge and expertise on health topics that are of interest to local communities. The first knowledge exchange event which will focus on ‘Suicide Prevention’ will take place on Tuesday, 27 May at 7pm in Lecture Theatre 1, Áras Moyola.

Research studies, including those conducted by the School of Nursing and Midwifery have found that giving people the knowledge, information and support they need is key to enabling them to better manage their own health or the health of those that they care for.

NUI Galway’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, through outreach knowledge exchange sessions, aims to provide communities with health information in an interactive and easily accessible format on topics of relevance to the community. It is hoped that this will address the difficulty people have in knowing where to go to find or interpret the information they need.

Adeline Cooney, Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at NUI Galway, commented, “It is never easy to make life style changes or live with a chronic illness, we aim to provide the public with information and skills on health topics of relevance to them with a focus on helping people to get healthy and to stay healthy. These sessions will be interactive, allowing full community engagement and we look forward to active and lively discussions.”

Preliminary work conducted with community members indicate that communities would value information and knowledge concerning such topics as;

  • How much exercise do you need to stay healthy and what type of exercise is best?
  • How to maintain good mental health and to recognise mental health issues in others?
  • How do I stay healthy during pregnancy?
  • What is dementia?
  • How best to care for someone with dementia?

This is an initial list of topics and the School of Nursing and Midwifery invites the public to make suggestions for other health topics to be covered. To suggest any future health topics to be covered during the lecture series please contact John Quinlivan at john.quinlivan@nuigalway.ie or Mary Gannon at mary.e.gannon@nuigalway.ie.

There will be two further events over the coming year and these will focus on:

  • Keeping healthy in pregnancy: 7pm, Tuesday, 30 September 2014.
  • Getting fit: 7pm, Tuesday, 27 January 2015.

All events are open to the public.

-Ends-

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