Introducing Care Day 2024! Care Day 2024 will be celebrated across the world on Friday 16th February. Each year EPIC Care Community and Youth Council members develop a Care Day theme, and for their 2024 celebration they have chosen “I am what I choose to become”. On the EPIC Youth Councils, there is a diversity of talent and interest. From aspiring nurses, paramedics and social care workers to Lego enthusiasts, creatives, and footballers, as well as young people who have embarked on careers as teachers, social workers, and digital marketers. These inspirational young people have overcome challenges and are embracing […]

PETMA© is an Irish, human right based approach to supporting service users who may get verbally or physically distressed at times. PETMA© focuses on preventing service users from getting distressed, using intense modules to facilitate an understanding of the realities of having disabilities and how this impacts their ability to understand and comprehend information. The training focuses on stressors, triggers, functions and maintain factors. It provides training on de-escalation techniques such as understanding, empathy and collaboration. It is a powerful training that equips staff to develop meaningful relationships to support service users to a calmer place. A TNA is conducted […]

As a collective, those with Lived Experience, Tinteán Housing, SERDATF, Better Together, De Paul, Cornmarket Project and SETU are inviting you to join them on March 6th and 7th 2024 at SETU Arena Waterford City, to a Change Event where they will engage in reflection and action to seek to bring about transformative change to service design and delivery in the South East, and build a movement for change throughout Ireland. At the event we you will hear from, and engage with the lived experiences of women in homelessness, substance use and/mental health distress. The aim is to create more gender-sensitive responses to service design, delivery and practice […]

Commencement of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act in 2023 required certain updates be made to the HSE National Consent Policy 2022 v1.2 to ensure it is aligned with the provisions and intention of the Act. This updated policy v1.2 will be available on hse.ie/nationalconsentpolicy on 22nd January 2024. HSE have scheduled 2 online learning events to introduce this update to staff. Session 1: 22 January 2-2.30 Introduction to key updates in HSE National Consent Policy 2022 v1.2 Register: https://eu01web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_erXZuuX1RomH9tFYsH1WCQ Staff are strongly advised to attend or watch back Session 1 in advance of Session 2. Staff can submit questions/case scenarios […]

If you have anything you would like to share with colleagues through Practice Links (events, publications, websites, reports, blogs, video links, new practice-focused apps, call for papers, useful social media accounts, videos, etc.), please email details to k.burns@ucc.ie by the 15th January. The next edition of Practice Links will be circulated at the start of February.Submissions should not be more than one A4 page, ideally shorter. There is no charge to include materials. We don’t accept advertisements. Where possible, include a high-quality PDF or JPG of your images/logos/flyers/poster etc. The team reserve the right to not include materials, and we cannot always guarantee inclusion due to space considerations. We do not publish articles or opinion pieces.Practice Links is circulated to c. 1,400 email […]

Understanding Social Care An interesting read for Social Care Practitioners. Abstract “There is a good chance you are reading this because you are planning to be, or already are, a social care practitioner. Yet for many in Irish society, even those entering the field themselves, the meaning of the term ‘social care’ is not self- evident. A common question directed at social care students and professionals alike is, ‘What do you do?’ Misconceptions abound and in many cases practitioners are not accorded the recognition or status they deserve, partly as a consequence of a limited understanding of what the term […]

  The day has finally arrived! Social Care Workers in Ireland will come under new regulation by CORU, Ireland’s multi-profession health and social care regulator, from 30 November. The regulation of Social Care Workers will promote high standards of professional conduct, education, training, and competence amongst those working in the profession, for the purpose of public protection. Welcoming the opening of the Social Care Workers Register, Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly said: “Today is the culmination of many years of dedicated work by CORU, the Social Care Worker Registration Board and many others. Social Care Workers are extremely important health […]

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, has today launched the 2024 Parent Peer Support fund. The fund is open to organisations working with parents and/or children and young people to facilitate the development and support of parent peer support groups.Beneficiaries of the initial round of Parent Peer Support funding included organisations working with parents of LGBTI+ children, parents of children with a disability and parents of children who have recently migrated to Ireland.This year, a total of €75,000 will be made available to 37 organisations with each successful applicant receiving €2000 to provide and promote […]

The Countdown is on for the Registration of Social Care Workers  The Social Care Workers Register will open on the 30th of November 2023, according to the Social Care Workers Registration Board. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is one of the key mechanisms used to foster high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training, and competence among registrants. This requires social care workers to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. CPD is a mechanism for maintaining registrants professional knowledge and skills. The National Institute of Intellectual Disability have put together some course bundles for Health & Social Care […]