Today we were fortunate enough to receive a presentation from Dr. Christine Linehan, who is the director of the Centre for Disability Studies at UCD. Her presentation was excellent. She was able to present information in an evidence based, clear, and straightforward manner that made the material easy to understand. Her evidence consisted of various statistics relating to the field on disabilities on a national and international scale. She also spoke in a  way the kept the audience engaged and seemed very down to Earth. She made some jokes every now and then, which made the presentation enjoyable. She could have presented the material in a very dry manner, but her personality prevented that from occurring.

The material that I found very interesting from Dr. Linehan’s presentation was how she discussed the census that the Irish people were asked to complete. I found it very interesting by the end of that section of her presentation that she tried to get the point across to the audience that individuals with disabilities essentially need the same supports as the elderly population do. I found this information mind-blowing because it really is such obvious information if you think about it, but I would have never made that connection if she never pointed it out. For example, plenty of elderly people have one or more of the following: mobility challenges, pain, need wheel chairs for transportation, visual impairments, hearing impairments, cognitive impairments (ex: dementia), etc, but we never think of those things as a disability we just think of them as a result of getting older. Dr. Linehan’s purpose of pointing this comparison out was to make the point that we need to focus less on individuals’ diagnosis and more on their services. What does each individual need in order to have the best quality of life, that is the most cost effective? She made a point that Ireland wastes so much money on unnecessary services that individuals either don’t need or don’t want, where the money could have been allocated to individuals who do need or want the money for certain services.

Overall, I really enjoyed her presentation and I’m interested in seeing what her colleague has to share with us when we return to UCD.