Cuan Mhuire, which has provided detoxification and residential rehabilitation services in Ireland since 1966, has won the prestigious CHKS Quality Improvement Award 2010. This international award recognises significant improvements in patient care and patient experience, as well as in staff welfare, safety and morale. Candidate institutions are evaluated by experts representing medical and nursing colleges, healthcare associations and national quality institutes.

It is the first time that this award has been give to a rehabilitation service. Speaking at the award ceremony in London in May, Cuan Mhuire founder Sister Consilio Fitzgerald said: ‘This Award shows how vocationally driven organisations such as Cuan Mhuire can deliver cost-effective services with the highest possible standards of care. The intrinsic value of each human being before God demands no less than our committed love.’ Cuan Mhuire provides a range of services in its communities in Dublin, Kildare, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Galway, Monaghan and Newry. Between them the services had over 3,000 users in 2009. Cuan Mhuire is a voluntary body and charitable trust.