vision statement mission statement - Ability West

Speech and Language Update
By Niamh Sheehan, Speech and Language Therapist
Family Networks Update
By Colette Daly, Head of Social Work & Family Services
The Speech and Language Therapy Department had a busy
year; a new adult Feeding, Eating, Drinking and Swallowing
service was introduced, Lámh and social skills training was
provided, collaborative work with other multi-disciplinary
team members on various assignments and ongoing work
was done on accessible information.
Another venture included the rolling out of training which
resulted in 40 staff receiving accreditation using Talking
Mats®. Talking Mats is a visual framework which uses picture
symbols to help people with communication difficulties.
This tool can be used across a range of areas for children and
adults and the Speech and Language Therapy Department
are using Talking Mats to explore issues such as transitioning
from schools to adult services, difficulties occurring at home/
day/respite, behavioural issues, choice making regarding
daily programmes and person centred planning work. This
is being done by training instructors, care staff, psychologists
and other relevant staff within Ability West to advocate
and implement the use of Talking Mats. This ensures that
staff working regularly with the individual can support the
experience of communication in a more meaningful way.
Talking Mats is used by the Speech and Language Therapy
Department. Niamh Sheehan, Accredited Talking Mats
Trainer, provided this training which is increasingly being used
by staff. Feedback from the training thus far indicates that
staff find it is a “very useful technique”. It allows staff to feel
“more skilled” and the service user to feel “empowered”. Staff
say they can see scope for using this approach in a variety of
ways in all services. They have indicated that they will use
Talking Mats to carry out work on Person Centred Plans, to
develop their relationships with service users, to get to the
core of issues that might be happening, to deliver FETAC
accredited programmes, to help people make choices and to
give services users an additional way of communicating.
Family Networks are now in existence in Galway City,
Mountbellew and Carraroe. Family Networks originated
from a pilot project funded under Genio which came to an
end in 2012. Since the project ceased the two networks
in Mountbellew and Galway City have continued and their
events/meetings are now organised by parents and family
members. Towards the end of 2012, families of children
attending Tigh Nan Dooley Scoil Speisialta, An Cheathrú
Rua decided that they wanted a similar support network for
themselves and set up “Comhludar le Cheile” and meetings
are now taking place regularly.
The aim of Family Networks is to provide a relaxed
environment for families to come together to discuss
common issues. The objective is to empower families
by offering mutual support through information sharing
between family members, problem solving together and
providing a forum for sharing information about initiatives
within Ability West and policies nationally. The meetings
in Galway City take place in Galway SOS. The Mountbellew
meetings take place in the Mountbellew Resource Centre and
the Carraroe Network meets in Tigh Nan Dooley.
A Family Networks email and texting service has been
set up for parents and family members which means that
information about network meetings and other information
or meetings which would be relevant to families can be
circulated easily and quickly. Three quarters of Ability West
service users live at home with their families who are their
greatest support. Ability West aims to support families and to
work in partnership with them in initiatives which assist them
in their caring and support role.
Service Users from Criost Linn ADS, Clifden, visit Connemara Community Radio
l-r: Hugh O’Toole, Mary Joyce, Keith O’Malley, John Conneely
Among the almost 82,000 who attended the 2012 All Ireland Hurling Final were five
service users from Ability West, thanks to the generosity of AIB Bank
Front l-r: Brid Duggan, Des Fitzpatrick
Back l-r: John Shaughnessy, Aisling Mulryan, John Walsh, Regina Cahill
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