On Friday 10th of May, NOVAS won the Best Patient Lifestyle Award at the National Healthcare Centre Awards in Dublin. Within a very competitive category of clinical programmes, the Limerick-based national homeless charity’s TOPPLE programme emerged victorious.
TOPPLE is a Peer Overdose Prevention Programme, supporting homeless people to prevent and respond to overdose. A programme developed in McGarry House homeless service in Limerick City in 2015, it has provided clients with skills in first aid, communicating with emergency responders and supporting people to reduce their drug use and their risk of overdose. It is a six week programme delivered between trained staff and clients living in the service. In the intervening years, hundreds of clients have participated in the programme and late last year it was adopted by the HSE Social Inclusion office, as a national overdose prevention programme.
Una Burns, Head of Advocacy and Communications with NOVAS was ‘delighted that the award recognised the effectiveness of the programme, which inherently recognises the strengths of our clients and the value of their lived-experience. Without client participation, there would be no TOPPLE. This award is dedicated to all our clients who have been involved in TOPPLE from the beginning and have informed its development through the years.’ She described the importance of assuming ‘a strengths-based, trauma informed approach to support people who experience homelessness, addiction and social marginalisation and harnessing their expertise to create pathways for recovery’.
The awards was accepted on the night by Julie McKenna, NOVAS’ National Health and Recovery Manager and Maria O Shaughnessy, a TOPPLE trainer within NOVAS’ Health and Recovery team.
