Vibrant ‘Tree of Life’ unveiled at the Mater Hospital
Published on 22 March 2018
A ‘Tree of Life’ has been unveiled in the heart of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital to celebrate their work to improve end-of-life care.
The giant artwork was lovingly created to celebrate the Hospice Friendly Hospitals’ 10th Anniversary by over 300 staff, patients and their families.
Each ‘leaf’ on the ‘tree of life’ is unique, some people memorialised a family member or friend who died, others it was handprints and thumbs up for good end-of-life care.
Mater End-of-Life Care Coordinator Diarmuid Ó Coimín: “These works of art were created on October 5 over coffee and cakes. The response was overwhelming. We expected 150-250 but within an hour over 300 people had created their own piece. We are truly delighted with the feedback and support of patients, staff and their families creating well-deserved awareness for the Hospice Friendly Hospital programme. In turn, improved patient care will be delivered as result of this engagement
Special tribute was also paid to Eavan McSweeney, Senior Speech and Language Therapist and Artist John Nolan who compiled the unique art piece.
The celebrations are part of the 10th anniversary of the Irish Hospice Foundation’s (IHF) Hospice Friendly Hospital (HFH) programme, which seeks to ensure that end-of-life, palliative and bereavement care are central to the everyday business of hospitals.
To mark the occasion, the IHF launched the special Hospice Friendly Hospitals 10th Anniversary Grants to celebrate the work and progress achieved across the ever-growing network of hospitals under its remit since being established in 2007.
Grants totalling €10,000 were awarded to hospitals nationwide, with HFH End-of-Life Care coordinators organising workshops for staff, patients and their families, hosting special awareness days and coffee mornings, publishing new multilingual information leaflets etc. To find out more about our Hospice Friendly Hospitals programme, click here.
The IHF receives core funding from Pobal from the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government’s Scheme to Support National Organisations 2016-2019.
