November 2025 - Welcome Home Heart Failure Workshop

The Welcome Home Heart Failure Roundtable, held on 28 October 2025 in Portadown, Northern Ireland, brought together heart failure patients, carers, specialist nurses, cardiac rehabilitation teams, GPs, pharmacists, academics, and patient advocacy leaders to co-design a Northern Irish – specific adaptation of the Welcome Home program. Co-hosted by Mended Hearts Europe (MHE) and Heart Failure Warriors Northern Ireland (HFWNI), the meeting marked an essential first step toward establishing a structured peer-support model that strengthens the transition from hospital to home for people living with heart failure.

The objective of the roundtable was to identify how the Welcome Home Heart Failure program — originally developed by The Mended Hearts Inc. (MHI) in the United States — could be effectively adapted to local realities within Northern Ireland’s health and social care system, which is currently marked by staffing shortages, delays in diagnostics, and significant regional inequities.

Looking Ahead…The work initiated through this roundtable sets the stage for a transformative initiative in 2026. The next steps — forming a dedicated implementation group, defining the operational model, training volunteers, and creating a coherent evaluation framework — will ensure that the Northern Ireland program is practical, safe, and rooted in lived experience.

Beyond its local impact, the initiative will serve as a blueprint for community-anchored peer-support models across the UK and Europe. By combining local leadership with international experience, the project offers a scalable model of patient–clinician partnership that strengthens continuity of care and improves the lives of those affected by heart failure.

Most importantly, the meeting reaffirmed a shared vision: to ensure every heart failure patient and carer in Northern Ireland receives clear information, compassionate support, and equitable access to resources — no matter where they live or where their journey begins.