Tomorrow, 10th September 2016, we are celebrating six year of Siel Bleu Ireland; six years of delivering Adapted Physical Activity Programmes to Ireland’s older adults, helping them to improve their physical, social and mental wellbeing.

Established in 2010, Siel Bleu Ireland was the second “little sister” of The Siel Bleu Association, who has been operating in France since 1997 and Belgium since 2009.

Following in the footsteps of Siel Bleu France, we kicked off here with a pilot project in three Dublin nursing homes and from there we have grown from strength to strength each year. Today, 14 Physical Trainers across 20 counties deliver our adapted exercise programmes to over 2,400 older adults in nursing homes, communities, one to one and through Patient Advocacy Groups such as Arthritis Ireland, Alzheimer’s Society and COPD Support Ireland.

With the help of a sustainability grant we received from Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition in 2012, we were afforded the opportunity to scale our services to new clients and offer nutritional screening to our community participants.

Over the last six years we’ve seen numerous significant mile stones for our charity. One of our proudest achievements was our participation in and completion of the European Commission funded study, HAPPIER, which gave scientific validity to the benefits of our programmes for nursing home residents and the overall nursing home organisation .

In 2014, facilitated by Ashoka Ireland, we were introduced to Boehringer Ingelheim who supported us in the establishment of our hugely successful, Exercise, COPD & Me project, run in conjunction with COPD Support Ireland. One of the only community based pulmonary rehabilitation programmes in Ireland, the project fulfilled a huge unmet need for people living with COPD as recorded by the initial four groups of Stage One. The project went on to receive two commendations at the Irish Healthcare Awards in 2015. Also, last year we were awarded a grant by the Medtronic Foundation to scale the project to an additional eight groups.

Within the next year we aim to expand our reach to all 26 counties, offering affordable and accessible programmes to whomever wishes to benefit form the positive effects of exercising. By 2019, we aim to deliver programmes to 5000 older adults each week, offering employment to 30 people.

“With a continuously ageing population, there is a severe deficit for preventative services for older adults, to ensure they years which have been added to our lives are lived independently and full,” says Thomas McCabe, Siel Bleu Ireland, National Manager, “That’s why services like Siel Bleu Ireland are so important, shifting the focus from curative to prevention, which can help counteract sedentary behaviours and issues associated age related decline.”

We would like to thank all our partners and funders over the last six years who have supported us along this journey. But most of all we’d like to thank all our participants, for you are our continuous inspiration to keep doing what we do. Your achievements are our achievements!

Thank you!

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Since 2004, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland have supported 190 social entrepreneurs, investing more than €6.26 million in their projects, as well as providing significant training and mentoring supports.

The Impact Programme supports social entrepreneurs with established and effective projects that have the potential to scale significantly – creating widespread and long term social impact.

Of the six social enterprises up for the Impact Programme, three projects will be chosen and will receive €100,000 in funding as well as direct support from the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland team valued in excess of €40,000.

We are delighted to be in the final six for the Impact Finalist Programme 2016 in such great company as Dress for Success, The AT Network, Recreate, Lakers and A Lust for Life.

According to the Social Entrepreneurs website, “The Impact programme runs for 2 years, allowing Awardees to develop not only a robust growth plan but to begin the process of implementation as well – all of which results in a substantial increase in the positive social impact of their organisations.”

“The SEI Impact Award is the most prestigious award available to social enterprises in Ireland,” says Thomas McCabe, Siel Bleu National Manager, “Receiving this award would be recognition of the strides that Siel Bleu Ireland has made in recent years. It would help to scale us on a national level in order to achieve our aim of offering affordable and accessible exercise programmes to more and more members of Ireland’s senior population and in turn provide employment to more than thirty people in the next five years.”

The Awardees will be announced on the 11^th October 2016.

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At the end of last year, our great participants in the Bray COPD group allowed us to disturb their class with a small film crew, with a view of creating a video to demonstrate the programme for people who may benefit from it as well.

As the Communication Manager, I often get bogged down in work in the office and don’t make it out to the classes as often as I would like. With this, the true impact of our work can get shoved into the back of my mind.

That being said, visiting the COPD group in Bray reminded me exactly why we do the work we do. Have a look at the video below and see what I mean.

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• Patient Organisation Project of the Year
• Best Patient Education Project – Pharmaceutical

Established in 2002 by the Irish Medical Times, the Irish Healthcare Awards have evolved into the “Oscars” of the Irish Healthcare Industry. Held in the Shelbourne Hotel Dublin and presented by broadcaster Ivan Yates, the awards were attended by over 370 people from across the Irish Healthcare sector.

Siel Bleu Ireland is delighted to announce that we received commendation in both categories on the night. We hope the last few weeks are only the start of the momentum for the Exercise, COPD & Me project and that it will enable us to help many more adults living with COPD to improve their lives and health.

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The purpose of the Medtronic Healthy Communities Fund is to promote health at community levels, especially for those who have been traditionally at risk for non-communicable disease (NCDs) or underserved by existing related healthcare services. The work of Medtronic’s Fund is aligned with the Government’s ‘Healthy Ireland’ framework, which aims to improve national health and well-being indicators over the next generation by focusing, in particular, on prevention and cross-sectoral collaboration.

Our application came under the grant fund objective of Health Access. COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) is an umbrella term for Chronic Lung Disease. For most people with COPD, less air flows in and out of their airways, causing shortness of breath and difficulty in breathing.

According to COPD Support Ireland, there are an estimated 380,000 Irish adults living with COPD, however only 110,000 of them have been diagnosed. There is an unmet need for all elements of management for people with COPD including exercise programmes which can help increase physical capacity, improve health outcomes, decrease anxiety around breathlessness and provide greater independence.

While there is a minority of people who have access to hospital based pulmonary debilitation programmes there is a serious deficit for on-going community based exercise programmes.

This grant award will fund Stage Two of the Exercise, COPD & Me project by expanding from the original four programmes to an additional eight groups based in Dublin, Mayo, Cork, Sligo and Ennis. Taking place over 6 months, the programmes will be run in conjunction with COPD Support Ireland groups as well as new members recruited through local GPs, pharmacies and Primary Care Centres. Participants’ needs and goals will be assessed pre, during and post the exercise class to determine the efficacy of this type of programme for people living with COPD.

Stage One of the project took place in 2014/2015 with results showing

• 70% of participants increased their muscle strength
• 70% of participants increased their agility
• 70% increased their flexibility
• 6% increased their functional capacity

We expect the results of Stage Two to reflect similar patterns.

It is envisaged that we will roll out the Exercise, COPD & Me project to an additional 12 groups over the next two years.

From Siel Bleu Ireland, we would sincerely like to thank the grant committee, Medtronic and The Community Foundation for Ireland for their support in this project and we hope we can start to make a real change for Irish COPD patients.

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Within a few months of joining our team, Margueritte became a full time trainer due to the increasing popularity of Siel Bleu in her area. Her professionalism and energy is highly appreciated among the participants in her classes. “I love the challenge of all the different groups I work with”, she told us, “the unpredictability of each day and meeting all the different people is something I thrive on.”

She is grateful to hear some of the participants saying thanks, because they have noticed a real improvement in their mobility, or a decrease in the level of discomfort. “It just reminds you how much of an impact an hour a week can have for the better!”, she added. If she could give one piece of advice to potential physical trainers for Siel Bleu Ireland, it is “a good sense of humour and patience would be anyone’s great asset”.

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Six months after the beginning of 2015, it is time to take stock. With our continuing goal of expanding our scope and becoming sustainable, Siel Bleu Ireland set a target to partner with 40 new nursing home partners. Today, thanks to the excellent work of our team, Siel Bleu Ireland has already partnered with 34 new nursing homes.

We have now expanded into Longford, Westmeath and Leitrim; we are now working with over 1850 older adults in 12 counties. We are delighted with our developments that enable us to deliver our skills and knowledge to a wider audience and a greater number of older adults.

To meet this demand, Siel Bleu Ireland is pleased to have three new part-time trainers: Lydia, Grainne and Martin. We are glad to welcome them to our team!

Through the efforts of our team we hope to continue raising awareness of the positive preventative effects of Siel Bleu Ireland and working with more older adults each year.

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Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI) is an organisation that supports and helps social entrepreneurs to increase their potential to impact upon challenges in Ireland. Since 2004, they have supported 179 social entrepreneurs and invested 5.82 million euros in causes they believe in. Every year, SEI holds an open call for applications followed by a multi-stage selection process to determine the projects they will support that year. Siel Bleu Ireland had the pleasure to be selected and was represented by Thomas McCabe, National Manager, at the boot camp on Thursday 28^th of May.

This full day workshop was the opportunity to pitch Siel Bleu to a panel of judges. Thomas also attended different workshops on a range of topics.

“It was really exciting and I really enjoyed meeting all these wonderful people and to learn more about the work they do,” said Thomas, “this is a great challenge for Siel Bleu and all the team is looking forward to finding out if we have reached the next level and are still in the running to be supported by Social Entrepreneurs Ireland!”

Between June and July 2015, the chosen applicants will be invited to submit further information about their programme and to take part in a final interview. Then SEI will select their final awardees that will receive this vital support.

To read more about the great work of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland click the logo

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On the 11^th and 12^th of May 2015, Sonas apc organized the 7^th International Dementia Conference, “Dementia in Ireland: Time for Action ” which was attended by more than 300 delegates involved in elderly conditions and dementia.

Sonas apc is an Irish charity who created The Sonas Programme, which is “a therapeutic communication activity primarily for older people, that focuses on sensory stimulation, in the belief that the senses are the gateways to communication.” You can find more about Sonas here: www.sonasapc.ie

Sharing a similar vision to Sonas apc, we were invited to present the results of the HAPPIER study. Thomas McCabe, National Manager and Andrew McBride, Development Officer, were representing our charity with an information stand. “We are glad we received strong interest from delegates”, said Thomas McCabe, “this kind of event is perfect to share our vision and the causes we are fighting for.”

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We were delighted to present the results of the HAPPIER Study, which really shows our impact on nursing homes:

• 80% of care staff believe their work conditions are improved by our programmes, especially their daily lives and the meaning of their work
• 96% of medical staff agreed that adapted physical activity is a “preventative programme” at the end of the study
• There is an improvement of 87% in participants’ moving capacity
• A reduction of 15% in the feeling that “life is empty”
• An improvement of 37% in participants’ capacity to wash themselves
• An improvement of 20% of participants’ capacity to feed themselves

Thomas McCabe, our National Manager presented the study and our impact to the group and Brand Manager Carla Piera Fitzgerald also attended the lunch. According to Caroline Daly, Public Affairs & Patient Advocacy Manager at Boehringer Ingelheim, « They both did an outstanding job bringing to life the incredible work they do », she added « it is such a pleasure working with such talented and committed people ».

“We are really proud to be a part of the Health Cluster”, said National Manager Thomas McCabe,  “and events like this lunch are fantastic for showcasing all the great solutions involved in the Health Cluster.”

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