Authors: Cassandra Dinius, Carmen Pocknell, Richard Roche, Department of Psychology & Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University
L to R Carmen Pocknell, Richard Roche, Cassandra Dinius
Remember those life moments that you think are unforgettable and yet, are already blurred one year later. Our precious memories are fragile and can evaporate as rapidly as a blink of an eye. Memory loss has taken so many dreams away.
Keeping our brains active – especially our memories – can be life changing, and is comparable to revisiting our favourite, faded old book: by reading it again and again, we keep the moments alive…
Author: Emma Smith, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute Member and Post-Doctoral Researcher; recipient of the prestigious Marie Sklowdowska Curie Actions Individual Fellowship
A call to Action for Revision of the Disability Act 2005
Social Structures
Authors: Mac MacLachlan, Delia Ferri, Delma Byrne and Anastasia Campbell – Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University
Be RADICAL: Revision of the Act on Disability in Ireland through Collaborative Action for new Legislation
By asking you to be RADICAL we are asking you to join us in calling for the Revision of the Act on Disability in Ireland through Collaborative Action for new Legislation.
We want to harness both new thinking and dissatisfaction concerning the Disability Act (2005), by constructively focusing on ideas for why and how the Act should and could be improved, now!
Our aim is to encourage legislators, and particularly the Minister for Disability, Anne Rabbitte, to begin the long-overdue process of legislative reform in disability. This year revision of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, (EPSEN) Act (2004), was announced. Revision of EPSEN, without revision of its ‘sister Act’, the Disability Act (2005), with which it is closely intertwined, makes little sense. Furthermore, both of these acts predate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) which, since our ratification in 2018 (we were the last country in Europe to ratify it), means that we are now obliged to comply with and deliver on the Convention.
Author: Deirdre Delaney, accredited psychotherapist (M.I.A.H.I.P, MCPI) and a tutor with the department of adult and community education in Maynooth University.
Deirdre Delaney
The Adult Education programme run by Maynooth University reaches all parts of Ireland. Every year our Addiction and Psychology certificate and diploma programmes gather from all around the country to share a day of presentations and workshops on the Maynooth campus. It is a very important day in our academic calendar but of course over the last two years we were unable to gather. Though an online day was organised, the pandemic never felt more real. Students and tutors alike missed the opportunity to be together with others on campus. For many students it will be their first time to set foot on a university campus. I always hope that it won’t be their last time.
Author: Rebecca Daniel – PHD Student, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University
Rebecca Daniel
The situation of persons with disabilities during the current war in Ukraine has been repeatedly described as a “crisis within a crisis” during the past number of months. This blog post aims to reflect on the multiple forms of discrimination that persons with disabilities face in times of conflict.
Approximately 15% of the worldwide population has a disability. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that 13% of people in Ukraine, in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021, had a disability. In situations of war and conflict, these numbers can even increase, since many disabilities are caused or worsened by war (e.g. through war injuries, a lack of health care provisions, or post-traumatic stress disorders). Given this, it can be estimated that the numbers of persons with disabilities directly or indirectly affected by the war in Ukraine are even higher than those estimated above.
Author: Péter Mezei, Associate Professor of Law, University of Szeged, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences; adjunct professor (dosentti), University of Turku, Faculty of Law
Péter Mezei
Most of the European Union (EU) legislation on platforms was introduced in a period that we currently call “web 1.0”. During the early years of the internet, websites offered “read only” experience, rather than interactivity and user engagement. The early legislative acts in the USA and the EU have contributed to the emergence of brand-new business models. The platformisation – based on the safe harbours granted for (certain) service providers – has generated a brand new (“read/write”) internet culture, something we refer to as “web 2.0”. For a while, social media’s contribution to modern society was hailed as the new democratisation of life, but those sentiments have since then gone, partially due to platforms’ excessive content moderation practices.
Web 2.0 – coupled with rogue websites’ contribution to illegal end-user activities – have sparked criticism on a global scale. It took many years in Europe to come up with the necessary solutions to mitigate the negative consequences of the platform age. One of the magic keywords for these reforms was the so-called “value gap”, that is, the claim that platforms’ benefits from end-users’ activities is disproportionately greater than the fees they pay to rights holders. Furthermore, as data has become the “oil of our age”, an urgent need has arisen to regulate the collection, management and utility of information.
Author: Dr Richard Vance, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Psychology and Assisting Living & Learning (ALL) Institute, Maynooth University
Dr Richard Vance
“I fear the day when technology overlaps our humanity” goes a quote, which is dubiously attributed to Albert Einstein on the internet—sometimes you can trust technology, sometimes you can’t.
Last week was Social Justice Week in Maynooth, and it’s as good a time as any to reflect on whether we’re making a positive difference to the lives of others and the world around us. I want to look at how we’re approaching the design and provision of digital health technologies for older adults to promote health and well-being and reduce inequality.
Author: Léa Urzel, PhD Researcher ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University
DANCING Logo
The Social Justice Week is currently taking place at Maynooth University. Thanks to the collaboration of staff, students and other agencies, an array of events has been organised to promote social justice and human rights. This year’s edition is dedicated to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adopted in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development established ‘an action plan for people, planet and prosperity’ and introduced 17 SDGs to guide decisions of a wide range of stakeholders at State, regional and global level. Under this UN initiative, world leaders have committed to taking joint action to achieve the SDGs and the 169 associated targets over the next 15 years. Integrated and indivisible, the SDGs and its related targets address global challenges ranging from poverty, health, education, gender equality to clean water, sanitation, or climate action.
Author: Mac MacLachlan, Co-Director of the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Professor of Psychology & Social Inclusion, Maynooth University and Clinical Lead for Disability Services, Irish Health Service (HSE)
Mac MacLachlan
On the 11th March 2022, Justice Siobhan Phelan’s Judicial Review , was released which sought to address the grievances in two particular cases, and to interpret the intensions of the Disability Act (2005) regarding the Assessment of Need (AoN) process. I can make no comment on the particular cases, but I would rather comment on the broader issues touched upon in the decision and on Justice Phelan’s interpretation of the AoN process, while well intentioned and carefully considered, seems to me very problematic. While she refers to a related 2019 report from the ALL Institute on a closely related topic, the judgement will not help us address the challenges, which are certainly not unique to the Irish context.
The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the AoN was introduced to have a standardised and shorter assessment time, allowing for services that assist children and parents to be provided more quickly. It allowed for assessment continuing as part of routine clinical practice alongside services such as therapy, recognising that assessment is not a one-off event, and that people’s needs change over time. The SOP also allowed for the situation where, should a preliminary assessment not be sufficient to identify the need for services, then a more detailed assessment would follow. This is a pragmatic approach, to maximise the impact of available resources, as the Health Service Executive (HSE) is compelled to do under section 7 of the Health Act (2004): resources should be used in the “most beneficial, effective and efficient manner”.
Author: Dr. Katja Seidel, Senior Post-Doc Researcher in SHAPES (Horizon 2020); Department of Anthropology and Assisting Living & Learning (ALL) Institute at Maynooth University
Katja Seidel
We all learn. Every day we live we experience something new, acquire novel skills or engage with a new person or activity for the first time. Learning thus never ends, not even when we leave formal educational pathways or retire. The Horizon 2020 Innovation Action research project SHAPES (Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems) led by Maynooth University and ALL Institute members, starts from the assumption that people of all ages are capable of learning and integrating new tools and behaviours into their lives, especially when assisted in an appropriate manner. This four-year research project looks at ways in which integrated care and governance models as well as smart technologies can support community dwelling older adults to live healthy and active lives, and investigates different pathways for change and innovation that will have a beneficial impact on our societies in Europe.
