Dr. Eilish Burke

Éilish Burke RGN RNID BNS MSc. PhD. completed her PhD in March 2016, during her studies she achieved a number of awards including Postgraduate of the year 2016 and was appointed as the Ussher Assistant Professor in Ageing and Intellectual Disability, Trinity College Dublin in September 2016. Éilish originally trained as a general nurse and through her volunteer work with the Special Olympics she developed an interest in intellectual disability. She trained as a Registered Nurse Intellectual Disability and worked in clinical practice for over 25 years. Éilish completed her Masters in Trinity and joined the Intellectual Disability Supplement to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (IDS-TILDA) team as a research assistant in 2010. Éilish served as Project Manager from 2011-2016, whilst continuing to play an integral role in IDS-TILDA she is now the Associate Professor in Ageing and intellectual disability in the School of Nursing and Midwifery with her research is based with the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability (TCAID). Her research interests include bone health and osteoporosis, inclusionary methods of healthcare screening and healthcare engagement, accessible health promotion and promoting research involvement of people with intellectual disability. She has been a successful collaborator and PI on a number of grants including HRB, EIT and IRC. She designed an accessible format to engaging people in health assessments in the IDS-TILDA study, further developing this into a MOOC - Improving Health Assessment Among People with Intellectual Disability - which has now attracted more than 7500 learner. She has also developed an accessible online programme for health promotion - Get Wise about your Health - and was the team lead in the development of the planning tool for end of life, - Glancing Back Planning Forward. Her work has attracted much public recognition and is cited as an exemplar in the Missing Billion Strategy, an initiative aimed at developing inclusive health systems worldwide. She was awarded the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award in recognition of her research work. Dr. Burke is leading the physical health theme of TCAID and is guiding the future focus of this theme. Administratively Dr. Burke is the Associate Director of TCAID and module lead on a number of modules on the Masters in Ageing Health and Wellbeing in Intellectual Disability, which is a unique course she designed, developed and launched in 2018. The programme is research led and under pinned by the IDS-TILDA study. Dr Burke is a committed teacher and has been involved in education throughout her career. Her contribution to education and the profession has included co-ordination and development of modules and courses at undergraduate and post graduate level and she is currently the external examiner at Queens University Belfast. She is a member of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, as well as the International Osteoporosis Foundation and the Irish Osteoporosis Society. She sits on the Quality Improvement HSE working group, the HSE Affinity intellectual disability working group, the Trials Steering Committee of the Matilda Project Ulster University and the Camphill Communities of Ireland Ethics committee and is the academic advisor to the Positive Ageing Strategy Committee, Gheel Services. Dr Burke is also a member of the Special Olympics International Global Curriculum Advisory Panel. In response to the COVID19 pandemic Dr Burke lead the design of an online educational programme for carers in intellectual disability services on recognition and assessment of COVID 19 among those with intellectual disability in collaboration with the HSE and OMNSD.

  Ageing   Ageing & Intellectual Disability - Changing Service Needs   Ageing & Intellectual Disability Issues   Ageing, Health and Intellectual Disability   BONE   Down Syndrome, dementia and ageing   Health status and inequalities   Nursing Education   OSTEOPOROSIS   Palliative and end of life care