Being denied IVF treatment because of being HIV+ is discrimination and needs to change. HIV is no longer a death sentence illness. We have already gone through enough, and now being denied access to fertility treatments because of an archaic system is deeply unfair and further stigmatises people like me.  In countries across the EU, accessing fertility treatment as a HIV+ person is not an issue. In the past year people whose partners who are HIV+ can to access to IUI. This is amazing, but many of us need IVF for many other reasons.  I wrote about my experience in the Journal.ie https://www.thejournal.ie/hiv-women-ireland-6387696-Jul2024/ Listen to my interview on Cork 96 FM https://shows.acast.com/corks-96-fm-opinion-line/episodes/woman-with-hiv-on-struggle-to-get-fertility-treatment-in-ire

The health and well-being of mothers and their new-borns are fundamental to the fabric of our society. By prioritising post-natal care, we can ensure that every child gets the best start in life, and every mother receives the care and support she deserves.  Please join us in advocating for better post-natal care in Ireland by signing this petition.

Soft play can be an incredibly fun experience for the little ones. However, this is not the only benefit of soft play for children. It also has demonstrated fundamental cognitive benefits. Soft play helps children develop their motor skills such as hand-eye coordination whilst in a safe environment to practise and develop their skills. The soft play environment will stimulate brain function and development and can help enhance children’s sensory processing abilities, which can improve their focus and attention. It also helps children to recognise cause and effect - a skill which commonly starts around 18 months, reaching a more competent ability around 36 months. At which point children are able to begin making predictions on what potentially may happen and show indications of reflection over what causes things to happen. These are fundamental skills for children to learn and so doing it in a soft, protective environment allows them to discover and practise them freely and somewhat independently, thanks to the soft play cushions and sensory soft play equipment. Social benefits of soft play for children Another role of soft play in child development is the advancement of their social skills. By learning through play, children can gain a basic understanding of how the world around them works. As an example, if you’re not nice to someone, they won’t respond well to you. This is also an example of cause and effect in practice. Soft play and socialisation go hand in hand. Children build kills and traits such as: confidence, resilience, self-esteem, independence, curiosity and how to cope with challenging situations. Learning through play also helps in developing language, imagination, and when to trust their instincts. Children can communicate and interact with their peers, allowing them to express their feelings, share ideas with one another, and build lasting relationships. Having this level of intellectual development at a young age will give children a huge advantage as they get older and start to participate in society. Physical benefits of soft play for children Another key benefit of soft play rooms for kids is physical development. As adults, we don’t tend to think about controlling our movements as it’s so hardwired in us. And when we’re children, it mostly happens naturally. There are two types of motor development that children will learn - fine motor development and gross motor development. Fine motor development involves learning more delicate tasks, for example, moving smaller things with their hands and balancing. Whereas gross motor development includes bigger movements such as running, skipping, jumping and climbing. Soft play helps children to develop gross motor development and fine motor development skills because there are so many activities on offer. Rope ladders, stepping stones, rollers and ball pits to name but a few. Climbing over obstacles and navigating the twists and turns of the indoor soft play equipment is a delicate task that requires a level of athletic ability and also decent motor skills. This combination of skills is what makes soft play so essential for a child’s development as it promotes good physical fitness, agility, coordination, and balance. Regular participation in soft play can contribute to the overall physical health and well-being of children, helping to reduce the risk of obesity and related health issues.

On 3rd July, RTÉ News published an article on its website with the headline "Irish Mpox patient had 75 sexual partners in 21 days".  This article is based on a report from the IMJ which describes how the LGBTQ+ community and healthcare professionals organised in response to the outbreak of mpox. Instead of focusing on any of this, RTÉ chose to report on the number of sexual partners one person had. This kind of coverage is stigmatising to everyone who has ever had a sexually transmitted infection (STI). It prevents people from seeking healthcare by making them feel like their sexual history is something to be ashamed of. We demand better from our state broadcaster. Together, we are calling on RTÉ to withdraw this article and apologise. We would also like a commitment from RTÉ to more sensitive reporting on STIs going forward.

Prior to April 2023 an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) only needed to be registered in the event that the person who created it subsequently lost mental capacity.  Approximately 1,200 EPAs were registered each year up to 2022.   It is estimated that only 15% of EPAs created under that old system subsequently required to be registered, which would mean that approximately 8,000 EPAs would have had to have been created each year to produce the figure of 1,200 registered, or 670 a month. In April 2023 the Decision Support Service (DSS) was established and the system for creation of EPAs was radically changed.  It was expected this new system would enable wider uptake of EPAs by the public and ensure greater protection of vulnerable people as they age.  However, as of 28 February 2024, it was stated in answer to a parliamentary question that only 697 EPA applications had been submitted to the DSS for registration in its first ten months of operation, roughly what would have been created in one month under the old system. In other words 10 times less than before.   The new system intended  to increase the number of people with EPAs has resulted in a collapse in the numbers being created  in contrast with the old system which worked very well.  The problem is an online platform  imposed on the creation of EPAs  by the DSS which does not enable a professional adviser to access the platform on behalf of anyone wishing to have their assistance with the creation of the documentation to ensure that it is done correctly. Anyone wishing to have professional assistance in the creation of an EPA via a digital platform should be facilitated in doing so and is entitled to have their professional adviser access the system on their behalf  to advise and assist in preparing what can be complicated and profoundly important documents with serious legal consequences. Revenue’s online ROS system allows a tax adviser to prepare and file returns for a taxpayer. The Injuries Resolution Board’s web-portal allows an agent to prepare an injury claim on behalf of a claimant. The Land Registry, the Companies Registration Office and others all do likewise.  The DSS platform does not and that needs to be fixed urgently  to allow people who want help from their professional advisers in creating an EPA to get it by providing professional advisers with access to the new online platform on behalf of anyone wishing to have their assistance. This is a change required to fix the system for creation of EPAs that can and should be made immediately to end this crisis in the creation of  EPAs which is causing serious problems for vulnerable people who need to have them in place. We are signing this petition to ask the Minister for State to fix this problem as soon as possible.

The Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use has the potential to bring justice-based reform to the archaic and abusive Irish drugs policy. However, figures within the HSE, Department of Health and the Irish Government are pushing for a new system which will see all those caught with small personal amounts of cannabis coerced into 'brief' SAOR medical interventions in order to avoid criminal sanctions. This policy will have massive consequences on human rights, bodily autonomy and basic dignity. It will also have disproportionate impact on: • Marginalised communities and people. • Medical cannabis users and patients. • Those in need of addiction treatment. The proposed system will clog up addiction treatment services, filling it with people who use cannabis and will result in people who need genuine help waiting longer. What we really need is a harm-reduction based approach to cannabis which focuses on safe consumption and cultivation, similar to what has been done in Malta with their cannabis social club model.

*WARNING* Possible wake up call ahead, be prepared to grab the wheel! To all the parents like myself on all the WhatsApp groups, checking the time of GAA training for tomorrow... Recently driving home from work I felt I was nodding off a bit, a product of this modern world, too much on, too much running around, too much technology coming at me, I'm exhausted to be honest! When I got home and after doing the domestic dance of who's making dinner that night, I fell in front of what was my "babysitter" growing up - the TV. At the same time my kids are spread out all over the house in front of their modern "babysitter" - the mobile phone. Why did I get them these devices? Because you got them for your kids, and you got them because I got them for my kids, peer pressure at its worst! The internet is an amazing tool, the reason you are reading this message, but we all know there is the dark side that we don't like to think about, is it a case of modern life has us so tired that we are asleep at the wheel or are we just turning a blind eye? The internet is like a car, difficult to live without one, safe and practical in the hands of an adult, but give a car to a 12-16 year old and it's possibly a form of abuse! Dangerous to the child and dangerous to those around that child! The state has a dark history of child abuse, something you would think would not happen again in our modern society, that we would not let it happen on our watch, however abuse can come in many subtle forms! Are we all guilty of staying quiet like all those cases years ago, choosing the easier path!? The media is awash with the side effects of these devices - social media anxiety, mental health issues, shore attention span, behavioural issues, desensitization to violence, social disruption, sleeping disorders, eating disorders, underage sex, teenage pregnancies, underage sex crimes - the list goes on, it’s some punishment on our kids and on our communities just so they can be "connected" and watch a few dance videos! Even with something as trivial as dance videos you start to realise the algorithms are pushing more and more sexualized content towards you! The sexualization of our kids at such a young age and the normalization of that fact is a serious modern-day issue. "You need to build a relationship with your kids, educate your kids" - this is what most internet guides tell parents. Good advice but it only addresses "pull" technology i.e. educate your kids not to go looking for the darker side of the internet. The problem is exacerbated now by "push" technology such as Snapchat where the darker side comes looking for you! Everything is not how it seems when it comes to Snapchat, on one side there is what appears to be a harmless app where kids can swap funny photos etc. On the other side it’s an unregulated, unfiltered, hidden, dark network, where kids can make and receive any kind of content they like, and I mean ANYTHING! Sure, wasn't there always a playboy magazine knocking around back in the day I hear you say, but the playboy magazine didn't contain graphical content of underage kids, and wasn't interactive, asking you to create content back! If you said 20 years ago that we're going to create a device and put it into each child's pocket and one thing it will enable is for kids to send naked pictures and videos of themselves to each other, then people would have thought you were crazy! Snapchat knows this but are too busy making millions, it will argue they are only supplying the pipes, the kids are the ones pushing the toxic water through. It's the gun manufacture debate, they only make the guns, you're the one pulling the trigger. Just like web email has filters, Snapchat could implement filters, they choose not to, they could even put AI software in place that says “we know that's you, cop yourself on”! As a 16-year-old, I would have been all over Snapchat, it has the thrill of a new relationship, aspects of gaming (fishing for better rewards) as well as the titillation! The content circulating on Snapchat can trigger kids to have an interest in porn, they then go looking for stronger content in other places on the internet. There's also a known sextortion scam circulating on Snapchat which has led to numerous shocking suicides! People say you can't change Society, but Society is the people, Society is us, we can change! Why did we get the phones in the first place? Society put peer pressure on us to get them, so let’s put peer pressure back on Society to change, then Society can go full circle and remove the phones! I believe most parents deep down know we've made a mistake with access to these phones at too early an age. Forget all the serious issues above, even just to get rid of the domestic arguments around screen time would make them worth removing! This is the cigarettes of our time causing the cancer in our Society, I truly believe in 10 years’ time people will look back and say, “what the hell were we thinking?!” Our government knows they are awash with social and underage issues but are they asleep at the wheel or is it a case of too little too late? Are they willing to take on the phone manufacturers?! The ask here is that you put your name to this petition asking for a public vote on smart phones. I believe if the vote was put to the public, the public would do the right thing! If you want to get involved in our movement, please join our Smartphone Free Childhood Ireland WhatsApp Group Invite And/or please take this quick poll (only two questions - do you believe there should be a minimum age and if so, what age?) https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8PJK9SH Thanks for reading, let's keep our kids safe out there! Sound Bytes Sam References: Jonathan Haidt on the Mental-Health Crisis and Smartphones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6NfPHrVilc The Anxious Generation Evidence  https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence

It's been revealed that the HSE has taken in more than €3.5 million in parking charges from Galway University Hospital and Portiuncula over the past four years. [1] It's disgraceful that people are paying such high costs for parking at a hospital. Those who are being treated for cancer or other long-term conditions bear the biggest burden of hospital parking charges – this is disgraceful and must change. Together, we call on the HSE to scrap parking charges for Galway University Hospital for patients with immediate effect so that people who are seeking healthcare can do so with dignity. [1] https://connachttribune.ie/hospitals-e3-5-million-profit-from-patient-parking-613/

For the past 7 months, the state of Israel has brought death and unimaginable destruction upon the civilian population of Gaza in a stark escalation of 75 years of colonial violence. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, 14,500 of them children and 9,560 women. More than 79,000 people have been injured. 1.7 million people have been forcibly displaced, many of them multiple times. Famine is imminent - half of Gaza’s population is facing food insecurity due to the intense bombardment of the Gaza strip and the severe limitations being placed on humanitarian access by Israel. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in February,1 in 6 children under the age of 2 was acutely malnourished. An interim damage assessment by the World Bank, EU, and the UN, has estimated the total cost of damages in the Gaza strip at 18.5 billion US dollars and has found that 60% of homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. The WHO conducted a preliminary assessment of the extent of destruction wrought on Al-Shifa hospital during an Israeli siege on the facility. The WHO have described the hospital as “an empty shell” - most of the buildings are destroyed, the medical equipment is unusable and no patients remain. Israel’s latest bombardments over the last 7 months have further intensified the occupational deprivation and injustice experienced by Palestinians by denying them access to the safety and opportunity to engage in even the most basic of essential occupations. Despite ongoing advocacy by Occupational Therapists worldwide, (Arab Occupational Regional Group, Occupational Therapists and Scientists against Occupation, Palestinian Justice is Occupational Justice) the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) have remained silent on these violations of human rights and international law, and have failed to call for a ceasefire. WFOT issued a tweet on November 6th 2023, stating that their “fundamental beliefs mean that [they] are unable to take positions on political agendas of any nation” (WFOT 2023). This stance is inconsistent with the federation’s own commitment that “WFOT, its Member Organisations, occupational therapists, assistants, and students are obligated to support occupational justice and human rights. WFOT affirms its commitment to challenge and address systemic racism and continue to advocate for people, communities, and societies.”  The inadequacy of WFOT’s stance on Gaza however goes beyond its failure to call for a ceasefire, and extends to its stance on the fraught international status of the Occupational Therapy degree program currently being taught in Ariel University, in the settlement of Ariel in the Occupied West Bank. The consensus of the international community is that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. This view has been upheld in the International Court of Justice and by repeated resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Ariel University therefore must be regarded as having been illegally constructed on stolen Palestinian land. The university is currently subject to an academic boycott by the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement. Despite this international legal consensus, the World Federation only last year took the decision to accredit the degree programme at Ariel University. WFOT has incorrectly listed this programme on its website as located in “Israel”, a designation that further normalises illegal settlement. This is unacceptable from a professional organisation that ostensibly takes an anti-racist, human rights based approach.  As Occupational Therapists, we have an ethical duty to fight for occupational justice for all people and to do what we can to ensure that all people have equal access and opportunity to engage in occupations of necessity, obligation, and choice. 

What greater act of solidarity would it be than for Cork to twin with Gaza City? Gaza was a beautiful and vibrant city before the repeated, violent Israeli attacks. Both Cork City and Gaza City have suffered from acts of vengeance. “The people of Cork have been on the streets ever since October. The solidarity has been heartwarming for me as someone who was born in Gaza and who has many friends and family still there suffering unimaginable hardship. It would be the greatest honor for them if our two great cities were to be connected by ‘twinning’. ” Nasser Al Swirki. A son of Gaza living in Cork UCC links: Gaza is a University City. All of Gaza’s universities now lie in ruins. The Gaza City university has developed partnerships with 142 higher education institutions around the world. Let’s make UCC one of those partners! CUH links? Al-Shifa Hospital was the largest medical complex and central hospital in the Gaza. We will need medical partners. Environmental Links? Now destroyed. Wadi Gaza: In 2023 the Gaza Strip’s only wetland was slowly coming back to life.

Breast cancer survivor Réaltán Ní Leannáin has said she was forced to remove her breast prosthesis in public view when going through security at Dublin Airport. This is a horrific violation of her dignity and it must never be allowed to happen ever again. We demand that Dublin Airport Authority put clear policies in place so cancer survivors know exactly what to expect when going through airport security. These policies should be available on the Dublin Airport website and should be based on dignity and respect for anyone who has undergone cancer treatment.

At this stage in the genocide it is unbelievable that Ireland has a powerful bill, that could help the people of Palestine, waiting in the wings to be enacted since 2018. It took immense effort from many political, academic and legal minds to get it passed through our legislature. There is no legal excuse for stalling it any longer. To quote Sen. Frances Black “... it’s not a legal issue, it’s a question of political will. The weight of legal advice makes it clear that we can pursue this if we’re willing to be brave about it – we need to stand up and show leadership”. (Irish times, 13 Jun 2020.) Something has to begin the process of turning the tide on the genocide in Palestine, especially Gaza. The OTB has been identified by multiple organisations nationally and internationally as the single most important and effective action that Ireland as a nation can take, at this time in June 2024.  Enacting the OTB can without doubt have a ripple effect throughout the world. Let's throw the pebble in the ocean of support for Palestine and see it do the work it was always intended to achieve.