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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of key word sign by staff in organisations working with children and adults who have intellectual disabilities. Design/methodology/approach: This commentary provides an overview of both historical and recent research in this area. Findings: After a dearth of research on signing, new studies are emerging, but appear to identify the same issues – and many of the same solutions – as those from 40 years ago. Social implications: Sign needs to be seen as a cultural intervention necessitating attitude change and policy development. Originality/value: Paradigm shifts in the field of intervention and in AAC are needed to address these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Workplace silence impedes productivity, job satisfaction and retention, key issues for the hospital workforce worldwide. It can have a negative effect on patient outcomes and safety and human resources in healthcare organisations. This study aims to examine factors that influence workplace silence among hospital doctors in Ireland.Design/methodology/approach: A national, cross-sectional, online survey of hospital doctors in Ireland was conducted in October-November 2019; 1,070 hospital doctors responded. This paper focuses on responses to the question "If you had concerns about your working conditions, would you raise them?". In total, 227 hospital doctor respondents (25%) stated that they would not raise concerns about their working conditions. Qualitative thematic analysis was carried out on free-text responses to explore why these doctors choose to opt for silence regarding their working conditions.Findings: Reputational risk, lack of energy and time, a perceived inability to effect change and cultural norms all discourage doctors from raising concerns about working conditions. Apathy arose as change to working conditions was perceived as highly unlikely. In turn, this had scope to lead to neglect and exit. Voice was seen as risky for some respondents, who feared that complaining could damage their career prospects and workplace relationships.Originality/value: This study highlights the systemic, cultural and practical issues that pressure hospital doctors in Ireland to opt for silence around working conditions. It adds to the literature on workplace silence and voice within the medical profession and provides a framework for comparative analysis of doctors' silence and voice in other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the unreported phenomenon of migrants with sight loss who experience unsupportive behaviour and attitudes from their own ethnic community due to their disability. In presenting specific case studies from a wider PhD study which investigated the previously undocumented experiences of migrants with sight loss in Ireland, the intention is to raise awareness among service providers of the additional vulnerability of this minority group. Design/methodology/approach – Migrants representing diverse ethnicities (Angolan, Algerian Nigerian, Zambian, Polish, Czech Republic, Malaysia Bangladeshi) described their experiences accessing disability services Ireland and discussed comparative attitudes towards disability in their home and host country. Service providers from the national organization working with people with sight loss were interviewed to gain an understanding of their attitudes and views on access and provision for migrants. By adopting a qualitative method following a constructivist grounded theory approach, migrants' own perceptions, beliefs, views and experiences of the sensitive subject of adjusting to sight loss while away from home were prioritised. Analysis of data was facilitated through qualitative software Atlas.ti and three core interrelated categories emerged most prominently: cultural perceptions of disability; support networks; and cultural barriers. The focus for this paper draws most significantly from the second category, support networks, most specifically the impact of absence or withdrawal of support for the migrant at the most vulnerable time of sight loss away from home. Findings – From grounded theory data analysis, three core interrelated categories emerged most prominently. They are: cultural perceptions of disability; support networks; and cultural barriers. This paper focuses most directly from findings related to support networks specifically highlighting two migrant case studies to report the impact of absence or withdrawal of support for migrant at the most vulnerable time of sight loss away from home. Service providers interviewed report inadequate information about migrants with sight loss. Evidence of stigma related to cultural perception of disability in the home community as trigger for discrimination from migrant's own network is reported by service providers. Findings are examined within an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, combining intercultural studies theories with disability models to facilitate a holistic understanding of the migrants' experience. Practical implications – The challenge of coping with disability for a migrant whose ethnic community network is absent, or withdraws its support owing to an individual's disability, have implications for alerting service providers to increased vulnerability of migrant service users. Consequently, this study has implications for programs and policies and can inform the development of culturally sensitive and appropriate services. Social implications – This study raises awareness of the compounded challenge for migrants with sight loss who are unsupported by their own ethnic group while living in a host country. Originality/value – This study reveals the previously unreported case of migrants who experience unsupportive behaviour from their own ethnic community following acquired disability. Evidence from migrants and their service providers demonstrates the impact of cultural perceptions of disability to influence the level of ethnic community support offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the processes and outcomes of a five-year initiative to develop inter-agency working between services for vulnerable 10- to 18-year-olds in a disadvantaged area of Dublin, Ireland. Design/methodology/approach – A case study methodology included: review of documentation on 32 formal meetings of the network; 43 interviews with agency personnel involved in the network; in-depth review of nine randomly selected cases which had been treated according to the network's agreed protocol of inter-agency case management. Findings – The initiative created a vibrant inter-agency process in terms of developing and implementing an agreed protocol for inter-agency care planning. However, assessment of the outcomes for young people and their families showed that only a few made any improvement. Four reasons are suggested for this relatively modest result: the target group of 10- to 18-year-olds had experienced neglect and abuse over many years and this made it difficult to achieve positive outcomes for them; the quality and standard of work by some staff in some agencies was questionable; agencies did not seem to include inter-agency work in assessing their overall performance, or the performance of individual staff; and most agencies did not seem to have adopted an outcome-oriented, evidence-based approach to their work. Originality/value – The paper points out that an effective and inclusive inter-agency process is necessary but not enough for improving child outcomes; the sufficient condition for improved child outcomes is effective intra-agency processes to deliver high-quality services and a policy environment that supports and requires it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to explore, for the first time, community perceptions of the relationship between age and social exclusion in rural areas of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Design/methodology/approach -- The paper builds on learning from a previous baseline cross-border rural ageing study and draws its methodology from a broader ecological multi-level approach. The research was conducted through focus groups with community stakeholders, which were undertaken in ten communities in different rural settings (village, near-urban, island, dispersed, and remote) in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Findings -- In total, four interconnecting thematic areas emerged as important in determining exclusion or inclusion for older people living in rural areas: place, economic circumstances, social provision, and social connectedness. Within these themes, various tipping points emerged as important for pathways into and out of exclusion, most notably local systems of social support and the mindset of older people themselves in relation to participation. Originality/value -- This research lays the foundations for understanding the lived experiences of older people on the island of Ireland and the pathways for their inclusion and exclusion in diverse rural areas, as seen through the lens of community stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Adults with intellectual disabilities are the most psychotropically medicated population of all. Non-medically trained care staff with whom these individuals spend the majority of their time are generally poorly trained in issues surrounding psychotropic medication. Much of the research related to the experiences of staff working in intellectual disability services has focused on medically trained professionals, and clients, and has been of a quantitative nature. Very little attention has been paid to care staff, their experiences, and through a qualitative approach. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – The current study employed a semi-structured interview methodology to explore the experiences of, and impact on, care staff in relation to psychotropic medication usage in adults with intellectual disabilities living in long-term residential care. Eight full-time, experienced care staff were interviewed and data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith et al., 2009). Findings – The paper demonstrates an array of concerns for staff, such as the negative impact upon client quality-of-life, the ethical implications of the medications' regime, and the relationship perceived by care staff with the organisation management; and a significant lack of training. The limited field of previous research demographically comparable to the present paper was analysed for findings. Originality/value – The paper helps expand the current literature on experiences of care staff for people with intellectual disabilities from their own perspective, explores the emotional impact of the organisation's treatment of clients, and offers a range of recommendations in terms of theory, clinical practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes among church administrators to church tourism, and the vexing challenge of categorizing church properties as tourist attractions for the city visitor. Furthermore, it seeks to ascertain if in the current economic climate, evidence of a collaborative inclination exists between core and peripheral supply-stakeholders towards delivering a church tourism trail in this visitor-rich area of Dublin city. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered to coincide with the busiest period of the tourist season. Using a qualitative methodology involving a series of semi-structured interviews, initial research concentrated on attitudes to church tourism among both church administrators and church visitors. Subsequent interviews with key informants from both core and peripheral stakeholder groups focused on their attitudes to stakeholder collaboration in the development of a localized church tourism trail. Findings – The findings of this paper would suggest broad support among most church administrators towards tourism and contextualising church properties as heritage attractions. However, operational dissonances associated with "church ethos" and "collaborative engagement", particularly when embedded within individual fears of being associated with an official "tourist trail" were viewed as collaborative impediments among some traditional and peripheral stakeholders. Originality/value – As international competition for the urban tourist intensifies, this paper, in adopting a supply-sided perspective has, through counterpointing psychological barriers to the development of a church tourism product, with the absence of collaboration champions in the area, highlighted a number of limiting factors to adding value to the visitor experience in Dublin's Liberties. Challenges abide! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Mental health difficulties are often stigmatised because of situated ways of talking that become taken-for-granted “truths”. Against this backdrop, identities of those affected are constructed. The purpose of this paper is to explore identities of former inpatients at an Irish Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. Design/methodology/approach – Ten young people (aged 18-22) participated in discussions and their discourse was analysed using a critical discursive perspective. Findings – Three key identities emerged: a hidden identity, a misunderstood identity and the struggle for a re-claimed identity. Research limitations/implications – Findings indicate the power of discourse in creating stigma and the need for mental health professionals to draw on empowering discourses to help service-users construct positive identities. The importance of involving service-users in research is also implicated. Originality/value – This research involves service-users who are increasingly, although not traditionally, involved in research. Use of qualitative methodology allows their voices to be heard and gives meaning to their experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study which examined how attitudes to maternal employment at different stages of child rearing vary across and within eight nations in the European Union: Great Britain, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, Italy and Spain, using data from the 1994 International Social Survey Programme. The prevalence of married women in the labor force undermines the traditional gender division of labor, whereby men are responsible for the public sphere of paid work and women are confined to the private sphere of home life. Increasingly women, even those with small children, are in paid employment. Women are now expected to contribute to the family income, but they are also expected to place family needs first. Based on the results of the study, cohort, education and women's labor force participation all have a marked effect on attitudes to maternal employment, with support for mothers working associated with more recent cohorts, higher education and the labor force participation of women or the wives/partners of men. Women's employment status has a stronger effect on the attitudes of men than of women. One unexpected and interesting finding was the dramatic effect that the labor force participation of women has on women's attitudes to maternal employment in the Netherlands. Austria is the only country where endorsement of maternal employment is consistently suppressed by its relatively conservative gender-role attitudes. Meanwhile, Ireland and Spain are very comparable with Germany in having low support of mothers working when the youngest child is of school age.