Registration 9.00am, Conference 10.00am - 4.00pm
The Richmond Education & Event Centre, No.1 North Brunswick Street D07 TH76
€40 IASW members/€40 non-members
This Primary Care Social Work National Conference will explore the evolving role of social work in Primary Care and the practice implications of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015.
Confirmed speakers include Amanda Casey, Chief Social Worker, HSE; Austin Warters, Research Lead, HSE; Tim Hanly, General Manager, National Safeguarding Office, HSE; Professor Shaun O’Keeffe, Consultant Geriatrician, Co-Chair- HSE National Consent Advisory Group and Caoimhe Gleeson, General Manager, National Office for Human Rights and Equality Policy, HSE.
Context
This conference will explore the complexities for community social work when supporting and upholding service user’s will and preference while simultaneously, assisting them to live independently in their community.
Adults with complex needs are more likely to experience poor health and social outcomes which may result in increased demand on health and social services. These needs for support may arise from illness, disability, broader life circumstances or a combination of these issues. Community social workers are often asked to provide support to adults at risk or who are experiencing poor health outcomes and frequently are involved in a coordination role in these complex cases.
In 2023 the commencement of ADMCA provided a legal framework for adults to make decisions about all aspects of their care, including the right to engage or not engage with interventions to support them. Working within this legal framework has significant implications for social work practice as they navigate effective approaches to support adults with complex needs to improve outcomes. Community Social Workers empower communities by responding to complex psychosocial needs, providing advocacy and supporting individuals to make informed choices.
The conference is supported by the HSE National Safeguarding Office.
This conference will provide an opportunity to reflect on:
Learning Outcomes
9.00 Registration/tea/coffee/pastries
10.00 Welcome
10.10 The Role of HSE Chief Social Worker: Real Change or a Case of the Emperor’s New Clothes?? Amanda Casey
10.50 Interventions to Support Community-Dwelling Older People with Complex Health and Complex Social Care Needs Presenting to Primary Care: A scoping review Austin Warters
11.20 Tea/coffee
11.50 Adult Safeguarding Landscape in Supporting Adults with Complex Health & Psychosocial Needs - Considering Opportunities and Challenges for Social Worker Skills and Knowledge Tim Hanley
12.30 Q&A Morning Speakers
12.45 Lunch
2.00 Case Study
2.30 Adults with Complex Needs: Is ADMCA a Help or a Hindrance? Shaun O’Keeffe
3.00 The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015: The Intention, the Interpretation and the Practice Caoimhe Gleeson
3.40 Q&A Afternoon Speakers
4.00 Summary and Close
The Role of HSE Chief Social Worker; Real Change or a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes?? (Amanda Casey)
12 months on from appointment, the first HSE Chief Social Worker will share some insights into her role, update on progress in the Adult Safeguarding Reform Programme and the publication of the first National Adult Safeguarding Policy Framework. She will outline priorities for the coming months and years and encourage attendees to consider how we as social work practitioners can support adults at risk to enjoy a life free from harm or abuse.
Interventions to Support Community-Dwelling Older People with Complex Health and Complex Social Care Needs Presenting to Primary Care: A Scoping Review. What are the Implications for Social Work Practice in Primary Care? (Austin Warters)
Increased longevity has been accompanied by a rise in multi-morbidity and patient complexity. Older people with both complex health and psychosocial needs often require high levels of support and resourcing, and they encounter multiple challenges in accessing support. Effective, inclusive intervention approaches for this group are therefore important. The scoping review underpinning this presentation has sought to explore what is known about interventions that address the needs of older adults with complex health and complex social care needs in the community. This presentation will provide an overview of the interventions, the enablers within those interventions along with outcomes achieved. The talk will conclude on identifying the implications for Primary Care and social work practice.
Adult Safeguarding Landscape in Supporting Adults with Complex Health & Psychosocial Needs - Considering Opportunities and Challenges for Social Worker Skills and Knowledge
Tim Hanly will look at some emerging trends and developments especially on the Adult Safeguarding Reform programme in responding to complexity. His presentation will look practice and policy areas such as navigating response to self-neglect and complex cases. In addition how we as social workers support peoples who have a “ right to be awkward “ and the place of the social worker in advancing a safeguarding culture in contested spaces with individuals and families
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015: The Intention, the Interpretation and the Practice (Caoimhe Gleeson)
The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 is ground-breaking law which aims to shift the decision-making paradigm from substitute to supported decision-making. This talk will explore what was the legislative intention of the Act, how has this been interpreted since commencement and what is happening in practice for the person at the centre, for staff, for families and within the legal institutes where decisions are being made. It will consider the links between the 2015 Act and safeguarding, why ascertaining the voice of the person matters and what patterns are emerging in relation to DMR cases.
Adults with Complex Needs: Is ADMCA a Help or a Hindrance? (Shaun O’Keeffe)
The guiding principles of ADMCA are 'the spirit of the act' and put on a statutory basis what are and should always have been good practice principles. The formal decision supports, on the other hand, are best seen as optional problem solving tools. Sometimes they will be useful; sometimes pursuing them may just take up staff time and energy (and cost a lot of money). Before thinking about capacity assessments and determinations it is important to consider whether a decision support arrangement will really be helpful, practical and actionable and will be the least restrictive way of helping the person.
Amanda Casey was appointed as the first Chief Social Worker for the HSE in August 2024. She qualified as a Social Worker in Trinity College Dublin in 1996 and has worked in a variety of settings since that time, including Adoption and Fostering and Medical Social Work. She has also held a hospital group role as Implementation Lead for the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act and Adult Safeguarding. She is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Work in the School of Social Work, Social Justice and Social Policy, University College Dublin. Amanda has post graduate qualifications in Leadership, Quality Improvement and Lean Six Sigma for Healthcare. Amanda’s role is to lead on the HSE reform programme for adult safeguarding in Ireland and the implementation of the National Adult Safeguarding Policy Framework.
Dr Austin Warters is currently the research lead for the two Integrated Health Areas in Dublin North City and County. He originally qualified as a social worker, and worked in childcare services in England, Scotland and in Ireland, where he was a Principal Social Worker. He graduated with his PhD from TCD in 2011. He also had an operational managerial role in relation to older people prior to becoming research lead.
Over the last number of years, he has worked with a number of academic staff in a number of universities in Ireland and internationally, on a range of research projects. This includes primary care needs of children with complex needs, older people with complex needs, co-creation of digital solutions and more recently secondary data analysis projects.
Research outputs can found at https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5970-721X
Caoimhe Gleeson is General Manager for the National Office for Human Rights and Equality Policy at the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Barrister at Law. Caoimhe represents the HSE on the Inter-departmental Steering Board for the implementation of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015.
Caoimhe provides advice and guidance on the compliance with the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 in the HSE, oversees the HSE National Consent Policy and works to progress equality, human rights advocacy and policy issues for people with disabilities and other diverse groups in Ireland.
Caoimhe holds a BA, an LLB, a master’s degree in Community Development, a professional diploma in Equality and Human Rights, a Barrister at Law degree and is a trained mediator. Caoimhe is deputy chair of the National Research Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials. She is a board member of the CORU Social Workers Registration Board. She is a member of the ethics committee for the NDA research on ‘The journey from wardship to supported decision making’. Her research interests include maximising the voice of the person in legal settings, reimagining the role of the next of kin and reframing the discourse on planning-ahead.
Shaun O'Keeffe graduated from University College Dublin and trained in Internal and Geriatric Medicine in Galway, Dublin, Boston and Liverpool. He is a physical and geriatrician in Galway University Hospitals. He is the National Clinical Lead for consent and mental capacity law in Ireland. Re-search interests include dysphagia and ethical issues in the care of older people.
Tim Hanly studied Social Science in UCC and then qualified as a social worker from the University of Warwick in 1991. He completed a MA at Warwick with a dissertation on the self-organisation of people with Disabilities. Tim worked as a social worker in Glasgow between 1991 and 1995 as part of a Community Care Team. Returning to Ireland in 1995. Tim occupied various management positions within Child Care services in both the North East and Mid-West Areas. Tim has a particular interest in foster care and after care provision and played a key role in developing practice and Policy within the HSE and TUSLA in these areas.
Tim commenced as Principal Social Worker in HSE National Safeguarding Office in September 2015 and is currently General Manager of the Office. He played a key role in supporting the implementation of the HSE Safeguarding Vulnerable Persons at Risk of Abuse policy. He has recently completed an MSc in Quality and Safety in Healthcare Management with RCSI. His second year dissertation looks at advancing the use of Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) resources which advance user engagement in adult safeguarding.
