HSE South East Community Healthcare was victorious at the Health Service Excellence Awards.
The region’s Health and Wellbeing Department won the Excellence in Quality and Patient Safety category with their project “Supporting Pregnant Women and Extended Family to Quit and Stay Quit”.
The initiative, which helps to stamp out smoking, has seen great success since its launch in 2020 with over 120 smoke-free babies born, some at St Luke’s General Hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny. According to project leader Kate Cassidy, it was critical that everyone felt respected.
She said “We use the non-judgmental approach. We treat people with respect and compassion. We empower them with the skills of how to quit because we know a lot of people want to quit, but they don’t know how. So we had two smoke-station officers working in the area, and they had all the skills to deliver that one-to-one intervention.”
