Wasting Time With People?

Ms Alice Leahy

The Alice Leahy Trust

Alice Leahy is Director of Services of the Alice Leahy Trust formerly TRUST which she co-founded in 1975. The structure and name change took place in March 2016 and the ethos remains the same. It is a non-judgemental, befriending, social and health service for people who are homeless. Former Chairperson of the Sentence Review Group, former Irish Human Rights Commissioner and former member Board of Management, Lusk Campus, Oberstown. She is also a writer, commentator, broadcaster and lecturer, promoting understanding of the needs of the outsider in society and daily in practical ways to help combat social exclusion.

Alice produced with two others "THE HOMELESS EXPERIENCE" a training module she co-facilitated for voluntary/community and statutory groups in Dublin. She has written a number of books which have been published in addition to organising two national competitions on the theme of the Outsider for Transition Year Schools. She has published numerous articles in national newspapers and medical and nursing journals. She also lectures widely to specialist groups and has directly contributed to public policy as a member of various policy bodies such as the Lord Mayor's Commission on Crime chaired by Justice Michael Moriarty; a Working Party set up by the Minister for Health to look at the care of the disturbed Mentally Ill; and as a member of the National Crime Forum.
Alice is also an honorary member of Rotary Club Dublin and was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship from The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. Alice - a former nurse / midwife - was involved in the setting up of the first Intensive Care Unit of its type in Ireland at the request of the Medical Board of the Royal City of Dublin Hospital in Baggot Street and was in charge until she left to work in the Simon Community as a full time worker. She later became Assistant National Director of Simon Ireland. She compiled the REPORT ON MEDICAL CARE FOR THE VAGRANT IN IRELAND in 1974, the first report of its kind published in this country. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and an Honorary Doctorate from UCD.