Welcome to the website of the National Thalidomide Advocacy Office (NTAO). This page is for survivors of Thalidomide, their families and/or carers and any health and social care professionals who treat and support Thalidomide survivors. As we are just developing this website, and do not yet have our own bespoke “Irish” content, our colleagues in the UK Thalidomide Trust have very generously allowed us to put some of their excellent resources to this website.
There is information such as a Resource for GP Practices, Social Care Assessment Professional Resource, Front Line Social Care Worker Pack (for people working as a Personal Assistant (PA)) as well as a video from a Thalidomide survivor who underwent a very successful hip replacement surgery. We are also hosting a webinar for Irish GPs in March and will be putting the recording of this on our website.
Resource Pack for GP Practices (PDF, 3.8 MB, 31 pages)
Social Care Professional Resource (PDF, 636 KB, 7 pages)
Front Line Social Care Worker Pack (PDF, 2.5 MB, 21 pages)
Happiness Is Hip-Shaped (thalidomidetrust.org)
Annual Report 2025 (PDF, 658 KB, 19 pages)
We are also including information on the 3rd International Congress for Thalidomide survivors which is being held this October in Amsterdam. As you will see in the invitation, any Irish survivors wishing to attend this conference will be reimbursed by the NTAO for costs associated with the participation fee, travel and accommodation for yourselves and for a partner or PA who needs to accompany you.
As we continue to develop the NTAO, we will be able to work with Irish Thalidomide survivors, and health and social care professionals who support you, to cocreate other resources that we will put on the website. If you have any ideas for future resources that you would like to see added please contact the HSE National Thalidomide Liaison Marie Kehoe-O’Sullivan, Email: mariet.kehoe@hse.ie.