North-East Inner City Healthy Communities Project

Evaluation Report Launched!

There are days in politics when you get the opportunity to see how the State really helps its citizens. Earlier, I joined my party colleagues, local T.D. and Minister, Paschal Donohoe and Public Health Minister, Hildegarde Naughton T.D. to publish the Impact Evaluation Report into the NEIC Sláintecare Healthy Communities Project.

This project was established in 2020 to help improve the health and wellbeing of residents across the North-East Inner City. The project proposed was based on learning from a number of well-established projects with a focus on Community Health Work and Social Prescribing. It also incorporated existing evidence based healthy eating, smoking cessation, health literacy and positive mental health programmes and initiatives. This began as a pilot scheme through the NEIC Initiative, first established by then-Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and has now become a nation-wide initiative, called Ireland’s Well-Being Framework.

In 2021, the NEIC Healthy Communities project was subsequently aligned with and funded under the Sláintecare Healthy Communities programme, established by the Department of Health, HSE and local Councils. The goal of the Healthy Communities Programme in the NEIC is to tackle health inequalities. This is achieved through the delivery of targeted evidence-based initiatives such as social prescribing, Healthy Food Made Easy, We Can Quit, stress management programmes, Health Literacy and Smoke Free Homes.

The NEIC Sláintecare ‘Healthy Communities Project: Impact Evaluation Report’, launched today, both validates the approach that has been taken in the NEIC Healthy Communities Programme and provides a framework to build on the progress to date in tackling health inequalities in the community.

In publishing that report today, we got to learn just how effective the Healthy Communities Project has been across the communities of the North-East Inner City in:

• Providing a constant presence across the area and by strengthening community action.
• Enabling and empowering individuals within our community with info and resources to make informed decisions to improve their own health.

The initiative has also contributed to the well-being of those who have taken part by:

• Reducing isolation and expanding social networks, through Chair Aerobics, for example.
• Developing personal skills and improving self-confidence.
• Developing healthier habits, with the Healthy Food Made Easy courses, for example.
• Improving physical and mental health by introducing self-help techniques.

There is so much more information to gleam from the Evaluation Report into the work of the Healthy Communities Project and it is worth taking a few minutes to read here: