Project
The HAPPEE initiative is designed to improve outcomes for children and families living in the regeneration communities by facilitating UL students from the disciplines of physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, human nutrition and dietetics and music therapy to complete their professional placements in the schools. The students provide collaborative, evidence-based and best practice therapy supports to the pupils and school, which complement existing HSE-funded essential therapy services. This innovative interprofessional education approach is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a key strategy to address current complex challenges in healthcare. Following best practice and with professional supervision, the UL students will offer agreed interventions using a multi-tiered model of therapy support as described by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).
Children attending schools in Limerick regeneration communities have been identified due their higher level of need as families in may have more difficulty accessing health services. These placements represent international best practice as they involve interprofessional education with students from different disciplines learning to work together in their respective professions. These interventions benefit the community by increasing early identification of pupils’ needs, reducing non-attendance for interventions, and providing services in communities with community support. The project also benefits UL by creating new and sustainable student placements.
The project began as a UL Engage pilot programme facilitating UL staff from the School of Allied Health and the Irish World Academy, together with local HSE service providers, to supervise student placements in Corpus Christi Primary School, Moyross. Over 13 months, placements increased from one therapeutic intervention to four. In 2022, Corpus Christi School and UL Engage joined with local schools to apply for funding from the Economic and Social Intervention Fund. This was granted and the HAPPEE project now comprises six schools in Limerick's regeneration communities, who together with St Gabriel's Foundation, UL and LCCC support are prototyping a scaled up version of the pilot. The participating schools are: Corpus Christi Primary School; Gaelscoil Sheoirse Clancy, Le Ceile National School, Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, Our Lady Queen of Peace National School and St Mary's National School.
In 2021/22 UL Engage staff conducted a community-based evaluation of the pilot programme. In Spring 2021 UL Engage staff developed co-designed a community impact framework, designed to assess the project’s impact on: school children and their families, schoolteachers, clinical supervisors and UL students. Responses from this evaluation revealed some practical issues in relation to sustainable staffing, and an overwhelmingly positive endorsement from the school staff, school pupils and their families. A second evaluation of the extended programme is currently underway and is overseen by an Advisory Group comprising representatives from St Gabriel's Foundation; the School of Allied Health, UL; Limerick City and County Council; UL Engage and the HSE. An application to the 'What Works' initiative led by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, with funding from Dormant Accounts, to support a move towards evidence informed prevention and early intervention services for children, young people and their families is currently under review.
Learning
UL is the only university in Ireland providing interprofessional education for students on placement. In-school professional placements enable students to be fully immersed in the education setting, learning about the importance of effective collaboration between clinicians, therapists and teachers to best meet the needs of the pupils in their placement schools. Working in partnership with class teachers and special education teachers, students will learn in an interprofessional setting, which follows best practice guidelines from the World Health Organisation.
During their placements, UL students work across disciplines to learn their own scope of practice and how to collaborate with other professionals in complementing the continuum of support in schools and working towards a full-service extended model of education and health supports on school campuses (LCCC IAG, 2021). The project aims to build the capacity of the school to identify and support students with special educational needs. Obtaining experience in schools and achieving clinical competencies in the education setting provides students with the training that they need to align with contemporary changes in service delivery.
Students will work in collaboration with class teachers and special education teachers to implement an evidence-based programme of interventions, which will be tailored to support the needs of classes within their placement school.
Student placements will be supported by UL Practice Tutors and the relevant clinical supervisors who will ensure that their professional experience accords with the clinical standards set by their professional regulatory body (CORU).
Research
The research associated with the project aims to provide a full evaluation of the impact of HAPPEE, using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Implementation Science Research techniques.
The unique aspect of these placements in the school is that they have a focus on inter professional education. This is in-line with the current direction from the World Health Organisation, who have identified that health professional students now need to be educated in a space where they can learn from, with and about each other - so that they can collaborate when they go out to work in teams in healthcare.
This project is being carried out under the auspices of the UNESCO Knowledge for Change (K4C) mentorship programme, an international global consortium devoted to best practice community engagement in Higher Education. The CBPR research project approach is primarily qualitative, using interview and focus group data, to carry out a thematic analysis. The Implementation Science project will apply the same methods using an implementation science analytical perspective. Research findings are subject to peer review and publication.
Resources
![Health Alliances for Pratice-Based Professional Education and Engagement [HAPPEE] (2021 - current)](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/media/images/HAPPEE_0.png.webp?itok=R3Wn0WxF)