Polio Survivors Ireland
Polio Survivors Ireland works to maintain the independence and dignity of polio survivors, supporting them at work, in the home and otherwise.
Member Q&A
What is your goal?
Our mission is to create awareness and provide information regarding the late effects of polio to polio survivors, statutory agencies, and the wider medical profession, and to ensure that the needs of polio survivors relating to their condition are met to enable them to live with dignity.
How have you been working towards this?
By providing direct services and supports for polio survivors, to help them remain independent, by working to raise awareness of polio and it's impacts among the general public and by working to educate health professionals on the needs of polio survivors and by advocating on behalf of survivors so that they have the statutory supports so they can age with dignity.
How has being a member of The Wheel helped?
We benefit from the shared knowledge of the Wheel and its member groups and by collaboration with our peers. The many seminars and workshops have hugely assisted us by helping staff to learn, or to gain new skills. The funding notifications have helped us to stay on top of this competitive area and ensure we are able to apply for grants that might assist our work.
How can people support you?
Either by volunteering to help - we have various roles that can assist our work and ensure it can continue. Donations are also very important to us, so that we can continue to provide services to polio survivors. In particular, our Winter Heating Grant which we provide to 300 plus survivors each year and which we fund ourselves.
Do you have any success stories to share?
In 2017 we launched the National Polio Register. We were aware as an organisation that there were many polio survivors out there, in the community, who were not members of our organisation. In some cases, they simply weren't interested in membership, or didn't see the need, or - they simply did not know we existed. We launched the Register to try to reach those who were not in contact with us, to raise general awareness about polio and to try to ensure that polio survivors who might need our help at a later stage were engaged with us in some way. It was also intended to create strength in numbers and allow us to advocate on their behalf with evidence of the need and numbers of survivors, when it came to statutory services. To date, over 400 polio survivors have signed this register. This is hugely successful for us, if you consider that is almost 45% of the number of members we had when we started. This truly strengthens Polio Survivors Ireland and helps us to continue to support those who had polio as babies or young children.
Where can people find you on social media?
