Healthy Ireland
Healthy Ireland is a government-led initiative that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone living in Ireland. To support its implementation the government has created the Healthy Ireland Fund, which enables local authorities to carry out projects and programmes that are making a positive impact on people’s lives across the country.
Good health and wellbeing are essential for people to fulfil their potential, sustain jobs, and support vulnerable members of society. While progress has been made in addressing many health issues, Ireland faces the same challenges that are causing concern in other developed countries: increasing levels of preventable chronic disease and growing health inequalities.
To help tackle these challenges the government set up the Healthy Ireland initiative. It envisions a society where everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and wellbeing to their full potential.
Healthy Ireland has four key goals:
- Increase the proportion of people who are healthy at all stages of life
- Reduce health inequalities
- Protect the public from threats to health and wellbeing
- Create an environment where every individual and sector of society can play their part in achieving a healthy Ireland
As part of the initiative, the Healthy Ireland Fund (HIF) was created. This fund supports projects and programmes that promote healthier lifestyles across the country, and it has enabled each local authority to employ a Healthy Ireland co-ordinator, whose job is to drive the health and wellbeing agenda in their area.
With HIF funding, local authorities can identify health and wellbeing challenges in their areas and respond to them accordingly.
A wide variety of projects have been supported by local authorities since the initiative began. Examples include:
- Workshops that allow people to find out more about healthy eating habits, or strategies to quit smoking
- Educational courses where people can learn about looking after their mental health
- Grants to help voluntary and community groups undertake specific health and wellbeing projects
For further information about Healthy Ireland projects in your local area you can check out your local authority’s website.
More information about the Healthy Ireland initiative itself can be found in the Healthy Ireland Framework document.
Healthy Ireland at Your Library
As well as the important projects implemented by local authorities, the Healthy Ireland initiative also provides very useful resources in public libraries.
When you pop along to your local library you’ll find the following under the ‘Healthy Ireland at Your Library’ banner. These resources are provided free of charge, and they’re carefully chosen to be reliable and appealing to people of all age groups and backgrounds.
- There's a dedicated collection of books on health and wellbeing topics. This makes it easy to find good information on fitness, healthy eating, and taking care of your mental health.
- Public events like talks and workshops that focus on physical and mental health are hosted in libraries as part of the programme.
- Trained staff are available to provide information, guidance and direction to users with health and wellbeing queries and to promote health awareness in the community.
- A number of online resources are also provided as part of the programme. You can access e-books, audiobooks, and e-magazines on health topics in the library, or simply go online and download them if you don't have the chance to visit your library as often as you'd like.
For more information on Healthy Ireland at Your Library speak to the staff at your library, or visit the Libraries Ireland website.