23rd June 2025
Belfast Trust recently celebrated 20 years of the Mourne Project with a special event for staff and service users.
The Mourne Project was founded as a day support unit for people who have had an acquired brain injury in both Belfast and South Eastern Trusts and is unique to Northern Ireland. The service provides day support and training opportunities for people who may be unable to access traditional day support programmes because of their complex needs. Catering for around 20 service users, the team provide very high levels support allowing participation, inclusion and continual improvement in their abilities and skills.
Located in Knockbracken Healthcare Park, Dr Marie Goss and Patricia Kirk started the service from scratch. Patricia Kirk, original manager of the Mourne Project recalls; “It was a shell of a building with new chairs stacked up against the wall, we didn’t have a pen, scrap of paper, a phone or even a name. The demand was so high we built the team and worked hard to welcome our first service user 6 weeks later.” Since then, Mourne has continued to grow and flourish, with many plans for the future.
The current management team, Manager, Susan McCutcheon, Service Coordinator, Emer O’Malley, and Clinical Lead, Dr Eunan McCrudden agreed that the celebration should be co-produced by service users, carers and staff, some of whom have been in the service for 20 years. Months of planning, growing plants, making decorations and baking, culminated in an afternoon event where service users, carers, current and previous staff gathered to celebrate Mourne and all that it has achieved. As chosen by the service users and carers, with the support of Charitable Funds there was entertainment, a petting farm, an ice cream van, crafts, a home grown plant sale, a history exhibition and the launch of service users’ exhibition “what Mourne means to me”.
You can view a range of photos from the event below:
