West Limerick Resources - "Committed to the Community"

Schools Health Service Project

Between October and December 2011, the PHCP team worked with the public health nurses to develop a project to promote the completion and return of the parental consent forms to the Schools Health Service. Without these forms, which are distributed when a child starts Junior Infants, the child may miss important vaccinations and health screening. This was identified during the year as an issue by the Public Health Nurses. The Community Health Workers went through all the forms and information and sought further information where necessary so as to be able to answer possible questions from parents. The staff delivered flyers and the forms (with the orange giraffe stickers attached by the PHCP staff - this is the recognisable image that is on the standard HSE child's health record book) to the national school in Rathkeale and put posters up around the town. From the school, the team knew that they had a given number of families to target and the Community Health Workers then used personal contacts, word-of-mouth, contacts made during the summer child-safety awareness project and meeting parents at the school gates to target parents of children just started in school this year. With determination and creativity, the Community Health Workers did meet mothers/fathers and gave information explaining the importance and significance of the forms. This was the first time this initiative was done and should be seen as the beginning of a long-term annual project.

Updated March 2012