Ideas in ALL

Maynooth Alumnus and Disability Activist Selected to Represent Disabled People in the European Parliament

Stories/Lived Experience

Author: James Cawley, Business Development Executive at the Irish Centre for Diversity, Disability Rights Activist, and Member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Disability Advisory Committee

James Cawley

James Cawley is a disabled activist from County Longford and an alumnus of Maynooth University who is currently working as a Business Development Executive at the Irish Centre for Diversity. He is also a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) and has worked in numerous capacities and functions in the areas of education and disability rights advocacy. He has represented persons with disabilities in public and governmental fora, having recently served on the Irish Government’s Disability Stakeholder Group (DSG 6) in 2022 after his appointment to the group by the incumbent Minister of State for Disability, Anne Rabbitte.

The function of the DSG 6 is to play an important role in the ‘monitoring of the government’s disability policies and strategies’ and it comprises a membership representative of a diverse group of people from the disabled community.

My First St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, a Sharp Reminder of Moments Past Lived

Stories/Lived Experience

Author: Harry Chikasamba, PhD Researcher, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University

Every experience is different. And my late grandpa told me, when I was a few days to my 20^th birthday, that ‘…in experience, we learn more about ourselves and others. You should be an ardent learner of life, through lived experiences.’ With that in mind, I became a learner of life. And everything fun, and beautiful.

17^th March 2023 brought about its own lessons, unique and memorable. Most importantly, the day took me down memory lane. For the Irish, and several others, one needs no sermon about this day. No! St. Patrick is well-known across cultures and races. He was, and remains, a core part of the Irish culture – and identity.

Rapid Neonatal and Maternal Sepsis Detection in Resource Limited Environments

Social Technologies

Authors: Nicola Mountford, Assistant Professor, School of Business, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL), Maynooth University and Sean Doyle, Professor, Department of Biology, Maynooth University

Neosepsis project logo, Sean Doyle, Nicola Mountford

Over 32,000 neonatal deaths occur per annum in Uganda, with sepsis accounting for 20% of this death rate – that’s 6,500 newborn babies who die of sepsis in just one country in the world. That’s not all, sepsis also accounts for almost a quarter of maternal deaths in Uganda. Our project, NEOSEPSIS, aims to reduce these numbers by introducing an easy-to-use, 15 minute lateral flow test to help to better diagnose sepsis in resource limited environments, such as Uganda.

The test detects Serum amyloid A, or SAA – a globally validated biomarker of sepsis. The lateral flow test used in this process is very similar to the type of antigen test that you might have used to help diagnose whether or not you had Covid-19. It is just as user-friendly, rapid, and equipment-free as one of those Covid antigen tests. This makes it particularly suited to environments where it might be difficult to take, store and transport samples.

The Right to Health of Vulnerable and Marginalised People in Ireland

Social Structures

Author: Ollie Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Law, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University

Ollie Bartlett

The world was clearly inadequately prepared to fight Covid-19. An important factor in this was the inadequacy of public health law frameworks at international, regional and national level. Political attention quickly turned to the creation of a new pandemic treaty and the revision of supranational rules concerning cross-border health threats, comparatively little attention has been placed upon the role that the right to health should have played in shaping Covid-19 policy, or what role it should play in the future development of public health policy.

I have written on this question in the Irish context, and concluded that the debate begun in 2019 on the need for a right to health in the Irish Constitution is worth returning to. A constitutional right to health would support clearer and more proportionate public health decision-making, and may facilitate more direct challenges to government policies that have unacceptable or inappropriate consequences for health outcomes.

‘Lived Fiction’ – First sharing of Inclusive Contemporary Dance Choreography within the DANCING Project

Social Lives

Authors: Ann Leahy, Post-doctoral Researcher, and Delia Ferri, Professor of Law, ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University

DANCING: Researching Disability and Diversity in Culture

The Project “Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths (DANCING)”, based at the ALL Institute, reached an important milestone at the end of February 2023. The initial work on an inclusive and accessible piece of contemporary dance created by Lucy Bennett and Stopgap Dance Company for DANCING was performed in Dublin in front of an invited audience. The work will be fully ready next year, and we are already looking forward to the world premiere in Dublin in early 2024.

The image shows Stopgap Dance company during the choreography. The image shows dancers from different ethnical backgrounds some of whom on a wheelchair.

On 24^th February 2023, Stopgap shared their work-in-progress in a pre-staging fashion, and without costumes or lighting at DanceHouse in a dedicated event organised in collaboration with Dance Ireland. ‘Lived Fiction’ – the title of the work being created by Lucy Bennett and collaborators from Stopgap – is an original piece of choreography that is performed by a group of disabled and non-disabled dancers and endeavours to be accessible to all. Stopgap’s devising process is based on key inclusive methods that the company has collectively developed and is a living example of how society should and could be, valuing the richness that comes from diversity. Experimenting and working on accessibility for both dancers and audience allows for a deep understanding of what accessibility really means. However, this choreographic work is also meant to be a “tool for change” by raising awareness on inclusive cultural participation.

GoGreenRoutes: Near Nature: Green Space and Environmental Justice

Social Lives

Authors: GoGreenRoutes Academy Cluster Members – Maria Fernandez de Osso Fuentes, PhD Researcher in the School of Business; Maynooth University, Cassandra Murphy, PhD Researcher in the Psychology Department of Maynooth University, Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL); and Alan Scarry, PhD Researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Limerick. All authors are funded by the H2020 project GoGreenRoutes.

The GoGreenRoutes Academy

Flyer of the Conference on Near Nature: Green Space and Environmental Justice — Conference on Near Nature: Green Space and Environmental Justice

Maynooth University, and ALL Institute project GoGreenRoutes (GGR) has a unique component referred to as an ‘Academy Cluster.’ Scientific Coordinator Professor Tadhg Macintyre established the academy at the start of the GGR project, and it has thrived over the past three years. Currently, Cassie Murphy, Maria Fernandez de Osso Fuentes, and Alan Scarry, all PhD Researchers within the project, oversee the GGR academy. The Academy is a meeting forum for PhD Researchers and other Early Career Researchers to discuss progress and gaps in their individual learning. It was developed to give the researchers an opportunity to acquire new knowledge and develop new abilities from a range of outstanding speakers in a variety of sectors. The researchers themselves then took on the role of teachers, imparting their knowledge to any incoming academy members. Since the academy’s inception, each member has been given two distinct skill profiles: one for skills they seek to learn, the other for skills they wish to teach. Then, at this forum, each academy member has the chance to speak and acquire new abilities. Based on a method implemented by Professor John Gallagher, who works on the GGR project, researchers are urged to evaluate their own development. By assessing their own skills and identifying knowledge or education gaps that can be filled for professional advancement and personal growth, the researchers are also able to monitor the progress of their own research projects through participation in academy activities.

Blog 3: Systems Thinking in Research: Considering Interrelationships in Research Through Rich Pictures

Stories/Lived Experiences

Authors: Bob Williams, Systems Thinking Practitioner, Trainer and Evaluator – Consultant. Joan O’Donnell, Systems Thinking Trainer and PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

1st year ADVANCE CRT Student Induction, Cork January 20
A number of people are standing in a circle, one of them is speaking. — *1st year ADVANCE CRT Student Induction, Cork January 2023*

Let’s start with a true story. It follows on from our last blog about focus and scope. But it highlights our tendency to start with focusing in on the subject of our research–with boundary setting–rather than considering the wider scope, especially when faced with ‘a problem’ that we hope our research will address. Stating that something is a ‘problem’ is a form of boundary setting, as we will see.

United Nations International Day of Education 24^th January 2023 – How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Denies Access to Education for Millions of Ukrainians

Social Lives

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute), Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Matthew McKenna

The 24^th of January 2023 was the UN International Day of Education, whilst today, the 24^th of February, represents the first anniversary of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began a year ago as of this morning. This blogpost will address the unfathomable human rights crisis and tragedy that has befallen the Ukrainian people and the subsequent denial of access to education in wartime.

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war” – Dr Maria Montessori.

Montessori, was an Italian medical doctor who pioneered the philosophy of education through her work with children with disabilities, starting in 1896. She delivered the above quote in the late 1930s while working on the ‘Education for Peace’ movement during her exile from Italy due to the anti-fascist ethos of her humanitarian work. Montessori believed that a lasting unity between nations and peoples could be achieved when the education of children was underpinned with the values of international peace and humanitarianism. Moreover, her work has had a profound impact on the gradual educational reforms that have slowly enabled persons with disabilities to enter education and has helped, albeit over time, to reduce the traditionally punitive and penal institutional approach to children experiencing learning difficulties. And as we marked the UN International Day of Education a month ago on 24^th January 2023, her words sound just as relevant in today’s context as they were in the agitated pre-war climate of the late 1930s.

The Ideas in ALL Blog Welcomes Three New Editors

*Cassandra Murphy, Neasa Boyle, Opeyemi Kolawole*

Dear readers of Ideas in All,

With the start of 2023, we are very pleased to announce that the Ideas in ALL Blog has welcomed three new members to its team of editors. In line with the blog’s consistent growth over the past year, we aim to continue sharing the expanding interdisciplinary research conducted by the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute and its collaborators, and to highlight key policy developments occurring at the national, European and international level.

Before presenting the new editors, Cassie, Neasa and Opeyemi, we would like to warmly thank our outgoing ALL-Blog Editorial Manager, Stacy Campbell, for her amazing work throughout the years. In her footsteps, our revamped team will endeavor to bring you timely commentaries on current topics and ongoing research from a rich network of experts in a number of fields including, to name a few; disability, psychology, law, public health and social policy.

Here are our new members!

The Other 73%: Changing our Perspectives when Conducting Dementia Treatment

Social Structures

Author: Sowmya Shrivastava, 3rd year BSc Psychology Student, Maynooth University, Research Intern for Mac MacLachlan at the ALL Institute

There is a growing realization that hospital employees and services must comprehend the complexities of caring for and treating dementia patients. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that dementia rates will double every 20 years, reaching up to 115·4 million people with a diagnosis in 2050. A number of underlying neuropathological symptoms can lead to the diagnosis, which can create problems when trying to differentiate dementia from psychiatric disorders as the disease is found to often mimic them in presentation. Due to this, there is a broad research area in matters concerning the treatments and interventions for patients with dementia. Doctors and researchers have found that the disease modifying antibody drug Lecanemab slowed the decline in memory and mental agility by 27% in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease but what about the other 73%? What steps can be taken to aid the other, larger part of people living with this degenerative disease?

A unimodal approach has been the most obvious route researchers have taken in order to find a cure for dementia; meaning that only one type of treatment route is used for treating the patient. However there is a downside to this one sided view. By conducting a research review on studies carried out who either took a pharmacological stand or a psychosocial step towards treatments for patients, it was found that both have delivered inadequate results in terms of validity and reliability. The data within research statistically shows that by solely applying a single approach to treating patients, i.e., only psychosocial interventions without administering any drug treatment, the rate of dementia development is slowed, but only at a miniscule level.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: