All Ireland Mini Conference 2023
The Brittle Bone Society were delighted to visit Athlone, Ireland in February 2023!
The one day mini conference was held at Athlone Springs Hotel- Athlone, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, N37, F9T3 on Saturday 25th February 2023 from 10am – 3.30 pm.
Families from both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland came together to enjoy a day of talks from Healthcare professionals and speakers from the OI community.
We had a fantastic event with over 40 delegates and speakers from Temple street Hospital Dublin, St Vincent’s Hospital, Royal Belfast Hospital, Sheffield Childrens Hospital and Nuffield Hospital Oxford. We are very grateful to all the healthcare professionals who attended and supported this event at the Athlone Springs Hotel. We also heard excellent presentations from Silean Kelly, Vanessa Canning and Dr Niamh McConnell about their own OI journeys.
We had an afternoon of group discussion and time to socialise with old and new friends. The little ones also had a great time at the Kids Club!
Thanks to Stephen Ryan and his team from Narration for their technical support, and hosting a jam board, discussion session. They did such a good job we have invited them to work with us at our national conference later in the year. Our interactive sessions were a big success and covered: Parenting, paediatric care, transition and adult care, drugs, clinical trials and research, dental care, mental health, employment and OI, social life and OI community support.
We asked what are the biggest challenges facing you right now and what is the ONE question you would like to ask. We were overwhelmed with fantastic responses and we are feeding these back to the medics who took part in the day. We hope we can publish their replies soon. One question we were asked directly to the BBS was “When will you be back in Ireland? ” – we can say categorically we are already looking to book an event for February 2024 – so watch this space.
You can view the Agenda for the day here: All Ireland Agenda
