Parents are the experts in their children’s lives. They love them, care for them and know when something isn’t right. That’s according to the Mullingar woman who is Head of Nursing at the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.
Sinead Moran has been with the national caring charity for the last 23 years of its 26 year history, and even though her role now involves liaising with all stakeholders, she still has a nursing caseload to keep abreast of the needs and wants of families.
“I am in awe of parents,” she said. “I always feel privileged to be invited into a home, and I deeply respect that. I go in, listen to what they want and then try to put in a service around their needs.”
Jack and Jill is a nationwide charity that funds and provides up to 100 hours per month of in-home nursing care and respite support to families caring for children, up to the age of six, with severe learning disability often associated with complex medical needs. Typically, these children may be tube fed, oxygen dependent, may not sleep, take seizures, need a lot of medication and require around-the-clock care.
Understandably, their parents can be exhausted and need a break, which is where Jack and Jill comes in. Their service operates seven days a week, with no means test, no red tape and no waiting list. Another key part of their service is end-of-life-care for all children up to the age six, irrespective of diagnosis, empowering parents to take their child home to die at this most difficult time.
“From day one, we have been about empowering parents. In my experience, parents are always right, their gut is never wrong. They know their child better than anybody else, our job is to support them in any way we can,” Sinead explained.
“I’ve met so many parents over the years. They are just incredible, amazing. They don’t want me to say that, but they are. I’ve learned so much from them.”
Over 3,000 families
Sinead started her career in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda before moving to Australia. She returned to do her children’s nursing in Tallaght University Hospital where she fell in love with the job. After a stint as a public health nurse, she started with the Jack and Jill Foundation, a move that would change everything.
“I didn’t really know what Jack and Jill was, to be honest, and what Jonathan did, but that man changed my life. I love every aspect of what I do.”
The Jonathan she speaks of is Jonathan Irwin, who sadly died in December 2023. Jonathan founded the charity in 1997 along with his wife Mary Ann O’Brien, following the loss of his baby son Jack. Dismayed by his family’s experience, he turned his grief and his vision into support for others. That vision became a reality of a home nursing care model in his son Jack’s name that has supported thousands of children across the country.
“There is currently a team of 16 liaison nurse managers around the country, and three administration staff,” Sinead said. “We go to over 420 families nationally at the moment and have helped over 3,000 families and children to date. My job is to make sure that everything is in place to provide our service, that governance and structures are adhered to and that the nurses are doing okay.”
Destined to Care
Sinead is the youngest of six and the daughter of Billy and Maura Moran (née Dolan), who were both psychiatric nurses. She credits her parents as being her greatest role models.
“From a young age, I wanted to be like them, but a children’s nurse. When Mum got married she had to give up her job but she worked in the country market, was in the ICA and volunteered in a camp for children with special needs. I would have gone along with her and experienced it all.”
“We also fostered Thomas, a little boy with special needs. He used to come to our home on weekends and for breaks and we loved minding him. He’d be up on my bed and with teddy bears but as soon as he’d hear Dad coming home from work he’d have the slippers ready as if to say ‘You’re home now, don’t be going anywhere.’”
Making a Difference
The past pupil of Presentation NS and Loreto, Mullingar also recalled minding children from around the age of 11, staying with her older sisters at weekends, always drawn to look after their little ones.
“I have always wanted to make a difference in other people’s lives,” she recalled. “A lot of the control is taken off our parents because they’re told what they have to do and when. I think the service we provide gives a little bit of that control back, allowing them to retain ‘normality’ in some way. For example, one of the siblings of our children wanted to ride her bike home from school – something lots of us would take for granted – but not possible for that family as you need time outside to do that. When her mother said she couldn’t, the little girl suggested asking me to come over and mind her sibling, putting the bike in the boot of the car and her mother meeting her at the school. She had it all thought out and it worked.”
“Another mother wanted to teach her other child to swim and asked us to come while she brought them to the pool. Everyday things that seem small to people become so important in this context, and we do our best to accommodate them.”
Serving Families
The nursing service is a day and night service, with families deciding how to use the hours, and their Jack and Jill nurse trying to meet their needs. Some families feel a good night’s sleep can help them manage better while others feel the daytime hours are more useful to them. Either way, there is no judgement.
“It’s quite a difficult job but from day one, the first liaison nurse Mary Joe [Guilfoyle] set up supervision on a monthly basis. This is where the nurses who support families, are supported themselves. In addition, the team come together and have that supervision for each other. It’s the same for families when they meet up – there is nothing like being with people who get you, who understand,” Sinead said.
“If I meet a family in the hospital, they’re often only learning this child is going to have quite complex needs. Some of these kids are going home to die, they’re not going to survive. It’s sitting and talking with them, listening to them, saying, ‘What can I do to help? This is what we offer. What do you think you might need?’ It’s not for me to say what they need but I’m there to help if I can make it easier. It’s also about guiding them, about what’s out there, what services are there, what other supports are there.”
Working together
Jonathan Irwin’s ethos of empowerment, empathy and support is alive and well in the organisation and Sinead said all departments work together to make things happen.
“We need fundraising because we only get 20% funding from the Government. As nurses, we might go to speak at events or help with photo shoots etc. We need the amazing voluntary board because they ensure we stick to regulations and abide by guidelines. We need finance to ensure the money hard raised is being fully utilised, communications to get the word out, retail to raise money and our CEOs to ensure that Jack and Jill keeps helping the people it was set up for – families.”
Sinead still lives in Mullingar with her husband Chretien Geboers, who she describes as ‘a wonderful man’. With 23 years and counting, the Mullingar woman has no intention of changing career.
“If you can get up every day and say you still love what you do, you know you’re not going far wrong to your life,” she said.
For more on Jack and Jill Foundation, visit jackandjill.ie, email info@jackandjill.ie or phone 045 894 538.
