Alice Leahy Director of TRUST
speaking at HOMELESS & ADDICTION Conference today
Urging nurses to speak out on behalf of their patients, Alice Leahy, Director & Co-Founder of TRUST and a nurse herself said: “Nurses must change the way we see ourselves. We must speak out and become effective defenders of our patients and those we are responsible for or nothing will change.”
Alice Leahy went on: “Nurses have a very direct caring role for patients in our health service. We know what is going on. We have the power as nurses to help people realise why action must be taken and taken now. This is essential if we are to change the way society perceives our profession.”
Alice Leahy was addressing a conference on Homelessness & Addiction organised by the Nursing Addiction Network, which was set up to help nurses become more effective in looking after those who suffer addiction.
Alice Leahy went on: “I have spoken out many times about the crisis of homelessness in Ireland. It is remarkable that as we come to the end of a period of unprecedented prosperity we still have a bigger crisis than we did before what some people regard as the “good times” began. This underlines how important it is that we are fully informed of the wider social issues and be confident to fully participate at all levels in the health service.”
“There is no point urging people to speak out if they are not supported. We need a see change in the way we see the nursing profession. We must see the nurse as the natural champion of his or her patient. This will not only alter the way society looks at the profession but it will ultimately result in the kind of fundamental change that is essential or we will never get the health service the Irish people want and deserve. We should not allow ourselves to be silenced by fear and bureaucracy.”
TRUST
TRUST is a non-political, non-denominational body which was established to provide health and related services to people who are homeless. Alice Leahy, Director and Co-Founder of TRUST and has spent all of her working life in the nursing profession in both the formal health service and various voluntary bodies.
Alice Leahy speaks about the Nursing Profession from a position of considerable practical working experience, not only on a day to day basis in TRUST, but also in her previous career. A former Ward Sister and Night Sister, Alice set up the first Intensive Care Unit of its kind in Ireland at the Royal City of Dublin Hospital. She wrote the first report in Ireland based on hands on work on the medical needs of the homeless which has proved to be an influential document. Her contribution to Nursing was recently acknowledged by the Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery at the Royal College of Surgeon of Ireland when she received an Honorary Fellowship.
