Huge increase in homeless women at the Coombe
it doesn’t hold any person back from reaching their potential.
Six years ago, she founded the Open Doors Initiative, a company that helps marginalised communities and individuals gain employment. It started with just 14 companies signed up to it — now, over 130 businesses are affiliated.
She said being a CEO has its own stresses, but a great team around her ensures she is more than capable of such a responsibility.
“I take six tablets a day, seven every second day. I have a chemical imbalance in my brain and I need help with it through medication.
“One in four people have a mental health problem. It doesn’t make any sense for there to be any stigma around it.”
Next Saturday, March 30, marks World Bipolar Day. Between 1pc and 2pc of people in Ireland experience a lifetime prevalence of bipolar disorder, according to Aware.
Dr Susan Brannick, clinical director at Aware, said: “Stigma continues to be a challenge faced by many people living with bipolar disorder, and their families. The impact of stigma can be significant, affecting symptom levels, quality of life and even access to services.”
Aware runs a ‘Living Well With Bipolar Disorder’ programme offering people a place to discuss their own experiences, develop a wellness plan and meet others with shared experiences
The number of homeless pregnant women attending one of the country’s biggest maternity hospitals has increased almost tenfold over the past decade.
A study carried out at the Coombe Hospital found pregnant women who were homeless were at a significantly higher risk of premature birth than those with stable living arrangements.
The team of researchers also found homeless mothers were more likely to have babies with lower birth weights.
Main author Dr Lyndsay Creswell said the study is thought to be the first of its kind in Europe to examine the impact of homelessness in pregnancy.
“We identified that pregnant women with unstable housing were more likely to be affected by other adverse socioeconomic determinants of health including cigarette smoking, substance misuse, and domestic violence than women with permanent accommodation,” said Dr Creswell.
“They were also more likely to experience a preterm birth and give birth to infants with lower birth weights.”
The research carried out in the Dublin hospital from 2013 to 2022 found 133 women reported being homeless or living in a refuge, compared with 76,858 women who reported that they had stable living arrangements.
Fifty-one women described themselves as homeless and 82 were living in sheltered accommodation or a refuge.
The study said the increase in pregnant women who were homeless or in a refuge or sheltered accommodation “highlights the increasing spectre of homelessness and unstable housing within Irish society, and specifically in Dublin over the last decade”.
The study found that just over half of the homeless women (54pc) were Irish while three-quarters of them were single (75pc). Three out of four of the pregnancies were unplanned (73pc) compared with 27pc of women living in stable living conditions.
The rise of housing insecurity has been particularly pronounced since the global financial crisis of 2008 and further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the study published in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology.
The latest government figures show there were 1,940 families accessing emergency accommodation at the end of January, which included 3,196 adults and 4,027 children.