The FaME Ireland Research Team was led by Ruth McCullagh PI. Between 2024 and 2026, the core project team at UCC and GCU supported the project implementation, organising of conferences, workshops, interviews and focus groups, and coordination of the collection, analysis and publications of findings. The clinical site leads, along with their teams and colleagues working in the early adopter sites provided local insights on service delivery, coordinated the collection of clinical data and worked with the team on the presentation of findings. Our collaborators in Ireland, Scotland and England provided input and expertise throughout the project.
Dr Ruth McCullagh
Ruth is a lecturer on the MSc Physiotherapy Programme in the School of Clinical Therapies, University College Cork. Prior to working in academia Ruth worked clinically for over 25 years in Ireland and the UK. Ruth's PhD was an RCT measuring the effects of augmented exercise in frail medical inpatients. Ruth's research interests include falls, frailty and Parkinson's disease, determining optimal exercise prescription, and supporting behaviour change to maintain independence, self-efficacy and quality of life. Ruth was the Principal Investigator of the FaME Ireland study, an evaluative project looking at 3-4 early-adopter sites of the Falls Management Exercise Programme in Ireland (HRB APA 028 2022).
Dr Leanne Aherne
Leanne is a physiotherapist, post-doctoral researcher, and exercise scientist specializing in rehabilitation, neurological conditions, and behaviour change interventions. With a PhD in Physiotherapy from University College Cork (UCC), her research has focused on improving exercise accessibility and adherence for people with Parkinson’s disease. She is dedicated to developing and evaluating fall prevention and strength-based exercise interventions for older adults and her work integrates evidence-based rehabilitation strategies to enhance mobility, self-management, and long-term health outcomes. Leanne worked on the FaME Ireland project as a postdoctoral researcher and led much of the clinical and quantitative analysis
Caroline Eldridge
Caroline has a BSc in Applied Health Science and has worked as a Physical Therapist since 2014. She is a full trained Postural Stability Instructor (PSI). Caroline is also interested in exercise therapy for Parkinson's Disease as well as promoting physical activity for older adults. As Research Assistant on the FaME Ireland Project, Caroline provided project support for the PI and worked with the early adopter sites facilitating interviews, workshops and focus groups, and collecting, analysing and documenting results and findings from the FaME programmes in Ireland.
Katherine Thackeray
Katherine has a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Services Management and a Master's in Government and Public Policy. Katherine worked for NHS Nottingham in public health and commissioning roles for 15 years before moving to Ireland in 2011, where she has supported a number of clinical research projects at UCC in the areas of dementia, reproductive health and diabetes care. As Research Assistant on the FaME Ireland Project, Katherine provided project support for the PI and worked with the early adopter sites facilitating interviews, workshops and focus groups, and collecting, analysing and documenting results and findings from the FaME programmes in Ireland.
Dr Scott Rooney
Scott is a Physiotherapy Lecturer and Research Fellow at Glasgow Caledonian University. He has a strong interest in exercise and rehabilitation science – particularly in those with long-term neurological conditions. His key area of expertise is exercise for fatigue in people with Multiple Sclerosis, which was the main focus of his PhD research. Alongside his research, Scott also has clinical expertise working with older adults in a care home setting. Scott combined his research and clinical interests to support the implementation of exercise and falls prevention interventions for older adults across Ireland during his time on the FaME project between July 2025 and February 2026
Edel Brennan
Edel works in the HSE as Primary Care Senior Physiotherapist and as Clinical Coordinator for Falls Prevention and Bone Heath across the West North West Region of the HSE. Edel is a trained Postural Stability Instructor and Otago Leader, and works with colleagues across the community to coordinate falls prevention and management programmes and services. Edel was the clinical site lead for the research fieldwork in the Leitrim/Sligo area for FaME Ireland.
Eibhlis Cahalane
Eibhlis is an experienced HSE senior physiotherapist and project lead based in Kerry, specialising in older persons' services, falls prevention and stroke rehabilitation. She regularly leads community-based initiatives and events and she is actively involved in the Kerry Stroke Support Group and is also a member of the HSE Postural Stability Training Committee. Eibhlis was the site lead for the FaME research fieldwork in early adopter sites in Kerry for the project.
Vanda Cummins
Vanda is an HSE community based senior physiotherapist and leads on providing individual and group interventions to keep people mobile in their own homes/environments and reduce need for hospital based interventions. Vanda is PSI trained, and also delivers interagency group exercise and education programmes for older adults at risk of falls and fractures, and is interested in patient centered healthcare, improving health literacy and roll out of self management skills. Vanda was the site research lead for a number of early adopter sites in North City Dublin for the FaME project.
Professor Dawn Skelton
Dawn is a member of the Falls and Frailty programme within the Ageing Well Research Group. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. As an Exercise Physiologist, she has a keen interest in exercise rehabilitation within a falls prevention scope, from the hospital-based physiotherapy delivery to the community-based specialist exercise instructor programmes (FaME). Her current research ranges from motivation and patient preference to engaging the very frail, increasing adherence to long-term exercise and working with the pre-frail to prevent poor outcomes later. Dawn is a director of Later Life Training which provides PSI training in UK, Ireland and beyond.
Professor Frances Horgan
Frances Horgan is Professor of Physiotherapy at the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. She has a strong track record in research of strategic relevance to stroke and ageing health policy in Ireland. She is co-PI on a Collaborative Doctoral Award (www.ipastar.eu) on improving acute stroke and rehabilitation care pathways. She was PI on the feasibility study of the Care to Move approach to enhance formal home support to improve and maintain functional status in older adults. Frances lectures on the BSc Physiotherapy and taught Masters in Neurology and Gerontology programmes at RCSI.
Dr Éidín Ní Shé
Éidín is a Senior Lecturer at the RCSI Graduate School of Healthcare Management (GSM) and has expertise in co-design and applied health systems research. She has focused on producing work with policymakers, members of the public, health care staff and academics. Her projects in Ireland have included developing interprofessional competencies in the care of older people with the national clinical program, assisted decision-making, frailty pathway co-design, and supporting staff in speaking up about safety. Éidín's teaching experience in higher education spans over 19 years, with experience in both Ireland and Australia. Her teaching and curriculum initiatives include health systems, Irish politics and public administration, health leadership and policy, strategic thinking, and research methods.
Professor Elizabeth Orton
Prof Orton is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Nottingham and a Consultant in Public Health in Leicestershire County Council. Her research focuses on injury epidemiology and prevention across the life course, including home safety for young children through to falls prevention in older adults. She is particularly interested in reducing health inequalities and understanding how best to get evidence-based interventions into public health practice, using implementation science theory to do this. Prof Orton is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (2014) and the Director of the Unit of Lifespan and Population Health in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham and the Principal Investigator on two large implementation and scalability studies of FaME in the UK; PhISICAL and FLEXI and theme lead for the East Midlands ARC on Building Community Resilience and Enabling Independence.
