Roscommon Frailty Intervention Team awarded best presentation by the Irish Gerontological Society and British Geriatric Society

The Roscommon Frailty Intervention Team (RFIT) have received the President’s Award for the Best Poster Presentation at the annual conference of the Irish Gerontological Society as well as Best Platform Presentation at the British Geriatric Society (BGS) Autumn meeting in Glasgow.

RFIT is a unique, fully staffed, clinical service which was introduced at Roscommon University Hospital (RUH) three years ago to provide a holistic assessment and brief intervention to patients over 65 presenting with frailty.

The team is led by Consultant Geriatrician, Dr Gerry O’Mara and consists of an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Frailty, Senior Physiotherapist, Senior Speech and Language Therapist, Senior Dietitian and Senior Occupational Therapist with access to Clinical Pharmacy and Medical Social Work.  

Dr O’Mara and his team received the President’s Award for the Best Poster Presentation at the annual conference of the Irish Gerontological Society for their poster entitled, ‘Falling, Forgetting and Wetting - Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus; A disease made for Frailty Clinics’.

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) is a brain disorder in which excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) accumulates in the brain's ventricles, causing cognitive issues, unexplained gait disturbances and loss of bladder control. The winning poster highlighted the suitability of the RFIT model of care in identifying previously undiagnosed neurodegenerative diseases due to its multidisciplinary nature and access to rapid diagnostics and a Consultant Geriatrician if required.

The team then went on to be awarded Best Platform Presentation at the British Geriatric Society (BGS) Autumn meeting in Glasgow for their presentation entitled, ‘The Patient is the Expert of their Experience’.

This project emphasised the importance of patient feedback within service development. Leading on from this success the team have been invited to exhibit their service development initiative at the British Geriatric Society Spring meeting in Birmingham in May 2024.

Dr Gerry O’Mara, Consultant Geriatrician and Frailty Lead at Roscommon University Hospital said, “We are delighted with the awards which recognise the work commitment of our frailty team and the benefit it brings to patients.

“Our goal is to keep older people out of hospital and help them maintain their independence. Because of the team's multidisciplinary nature, we can provide expert assessment of gait, functional and cognitive ability, speech or swallow disorders, and nutritional concerns in one session.

“The enthusiasm of all of the team members and the positive feedback from the patients is what inspires us and I feel that this is only the beginning of a new type of pro-active and effective healthcare that our elderly patients need and deserve.

“For small hospitals like Roscommon University Hospital, I see the RFIT team here in the hospital and our outreach ICPOP (Integrated Care Programme for Older Persons) team running clinics in Castlerea and Boyle as the lynchpins of elderly care in Roscommon and East Galway in the future. We all work together as a unit and it is the best example I have seen of a hospital-based service interacting with a community-based service since I started working here in 2002, added Dr O’Mara.