Young people who are non-speaking, sometimes speaking, or communicate differently and their supporters are invited to take part in a research project about using Ireland’s new Capacity Act.
What is this research about?
This research project wants to learn how young people who are non-speaking, sometimes speaking, or communicate differently can access and use the support agreements under Ireland’s new capacity Act.
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 was given full legal force in April 2023. The Act made a lot of changes to Irish law including offering people an opportunity to make formal agreements with their chosen supporters for the first time. It also changed how a person’s decision-making ability is assessed to include being able to communicate a decision to others.
Who can take part?
The project is looking for young people who are non-speaking, sometimes speaking or communicate differently and their supporters to take part. To take part young people have to be between 16 and 35 years of age and living in the Republic of Ireland.
In this project different or alternative communication includes communicating using high or low tech alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices such as letters, symbols, pictures or speech generating devices and informal communication such as gestures, vocalisations, facial expressions and body language. Supporters could be a young person’s parents, guardians, siblings or paid support staff.
What will people taking part have to do?
People taking part in this research will be asked to tell Clíona about how they are preparing to transition to a support agreement under Ireland’s new capacity Act if they are under 18 or about their experience of making and registering a support agreement if they are over 18. They will be asked about how they communicate, who supports them to make decisions, what sorts of decisions they have made in the past. They will be asked questions about what the registration or transition process is like, and what barriers they faced.
There will be lots of different ways for people to share their experiences including in writing, by drawing or taking pictures, using video recordings and/or interviews. People taking part will have to be happy for Clíona to use what they share in her research.
Accessibility – making it easier to take part
It is important to Clíona that young people and their supporters who are interested in the research can be involved or simply have easy ways to contact her to find out more. Please let Clíona know what would help you to take part. You can contact her by phone, email or text and information about the project is available in multiple formats – plain language, EasyRead, large text etc. Please also let her know if you need sign language interpretation or other supports.
More information
If you have questions or are interested in taking part, you should contact Clíona at cliona.debhailis@universityofgalway.ie or on 086-0081153 (call or text).
