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INHERENT Conference on Inclusion Health

On 27 February 2026 an important collaborative conference was held in UCC, bringing together community groups, practitioners, activists and academics committed to enhancing Inclusion Health.

Inclusion health (IH) is defined as “…an approach to healthcare that recognises and aims to minimise the extreme health inequities faced by people experiencing social exclusion” (RCPI, 2026). 

The conference represented an important stage of the INHERENT project which aims to develop an IH network in Cork alongside a number of similar networks in partner European cities, together creating the INHERENT consortium (see diagram below).

Supported by funding from the UNIC for Engaged Research seed fund, and led by Dr Angela Flynn (School of Nursing and Midwifery and UCC Futures - Collective Social Futures), this project is linking in with key providers with expertise in providing care to the most marginalised communities in Cork and beyond.

The conference heard from Denise Cahill of Cork Healthy Cities, the keynote speaker, who emphasised the importance of interagency collaboration and looking at health of people through a social determinants’ lens. She encouraged everyone to think in terms of enhancing systems rather than in terms of projects, and she called for those working in social change to recognise the expertise within communities themselves.

After an interesting Q&A the conference then heard from a number of Cork based organisations who provided their ‘lightning presentations’ on best practices in IH. The conference heard from:

• The Traveller Visibility Group (TVG) with Biddy McDonagh and Tehmina Kazi,
• Let’s Grow Together with Grace Walsh
• DePaul with Rebecca Gaynor O Carroll and Liz Cronin who were also joined by Eibhlín Collins (IH Advanced Nurse Practitioner at the Mercy University Hospital)

Each group shared their experiences of supporting their communities and service users to access healthcare. The theme of trauma-informed care came through as critically important by all of the speakers, in addition to the centrality of respect and inclusion.

The following session involved similarly rapid lightning presentations from a number of European partner universities including:

• Professor Rathi Ramji from Malmö University, Sweden
• Professor Kristina Mikkonen from Oulu University, Finland (ONLINE)
• Professor Aleksander Džakula from University of Zagreb, Croatia (ONLINE)

Each of these UNIC partners shared their work on IH including community based participatory research towards more equal health, integrating culturally sensitive care into nursing and supporting complex patients to access integrated care. Some of the slides from these presentations are available here.

After a networking lunch that allowed participants to share ideas and contacts, the conference resumed with a mini-World-Café event. At three stations in the room participants were facilitated by members of the research team (Helen, Margaret and Sonja) to brainstorm towards answering three questions central to the success of the INHERENT project:

1. What should be the research priorities for those working in IH?
2. What are the optimum approaches to engaging community members in IH research?
3. How can our INHERENT Network best operate and share activities?

Participants moved from one station (phase) to the next building iteratively on each others’ contributions. Finally, at the end of the three phases of the World Café the three groups fed back their deliberations to the room and their combined contributions were ‘harvested’ into one document. This document forms the basis for the action plan that will be initiated and implemented over the coming months.

The research team would like to sincerely thank all those who attended the conference and contributed so generously of their time and expertise. We look forward to sharing the outputs from this work with you and continuing to build a sustainable Inclusion Health network for Cork and beyond.

The project is led by Dr Angela Flynn in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and UCC Futures - Collective Social Futures, alongside Dr Sonja Vucen in the School of Pharmacy, Dr Helen Kelly in the School of Clinical Therapies and Dr Margaret Murphy in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and it is funded by UNIC Engaged Research Seed Funding.

This Engaged Research initiative is contributing to:

• UNIC Theme: ‘Health and Wellbeing’
• Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city built on partnership, inclusion, and equality.’
• Sustainable Development Goal: 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’

For more on this story contact:

_{Dr Angela Flynn (Project Lead) Angela.Flynn@ucc.ie}