Focus On Deafness And Hearing Loss; Churches vital role in suicide prevention – Martin McGuinness; Dublin Symposium on Jonathan Swift; Children’s Minister: ‘Child abuse has not gone away…it doesn’t go away’
Focus On Deafness And Hearing Loss
The third Sunday of November is designated Disability Awareness Sunday in the Church of Ireland. This year it falls on Sunday 17 November and the focus for 2013 is on raising awareness around deafness and hearing loss alongside considering disabilities of every type at all times of the year.
This November, the Church’s Working Group on Disability wishes to encourage churches to consider how to help deaf people and people with hearing loss to participate fully in parish life and worship.
The chairperson of the Working Group on Disability, the Revd Jennifer McWhirter, has compiled some helpful information (below) in order to provide more general knowledge of this issue. Levels of deafness vary from mild to moderate to severe and profound deafness, and statistics reveal that in the UK one in six of the population is deaf and 8.3 million people are hard of hearing while in the Republic of Ireland there are 5,000 profoundly deaf sign language users and 225,000 people who are hard of hearing.
Most importantly, the Revd Jennifer McWhirter, who is also Church of Ireland Chaplain to the deaf, suggests that parishes can help address deafness and hearing loss by considering the following practical measures:
• Installing a loop system in our churches, making sure they are regularly checked, and ensuring they are switched on during services. There is nothing more frustrating than struggling to hear during a service and then finding out the loop system wasn’t switched on either because the churchwarden forgot, or didn’t think to do it! As part of this, also making sure that those leading the service remember to use the microphone.
• Using a screen. While it is acknowledged that not every parish has a screen in church, nor wants one, where there is one, it is a great help to someone who is deaf if the service is put up on the screen. They can then follow where you are in the service.
• If clergy and people know that there is a parishioner who is profoundly deaf and uses sign language, learning a few signs to be able to say hello and ask them how they are shows that you care.
• If you are holding a special service (e.g. baptism, wedding or funeral) and know there will be sign language using deaf people attending then employ the services of an interpreter.
This helps deaf people be completely involved with the service, which again shows consideration. (In Northern Ireland the Revd Jennifer McWhirter can help with this.)
Churches vital role in suicide prevention – Martin McGuinness
The deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, today said: “Churches have a vital role to play in helping to prevent suicide and providing pastoral care for those families and friends affected by suicide.”
Speaking to over 70 delegates at Suicide Prevention and Pastoral Care, a special event for clergy and people in leadership roles within churches, he continued: “Reducing the risk of suicide and building the capacity to cope with circumstances that drive so many people in our society to take their own lives requires collaboration and partnership working. We need to work across Government and across all sections of society, including Churches, faith groups, the private and community sector as well as with those affected by suicide to help prevent this tragic loss of life.”
The aim of the event was to equip clergy and people in leadership roles within churches to sensitively deal with suicide prevention and pastoral care. The keynote address was given by Prof Thomas Joiner, an academic psychologist and leading expert on the psychology and neurobiology of Mood Disorders, Suicide, and related conditions.
As well as the keynote address from Prof Joiner there was also a series of workshops and a panel discussion, including input from those who work in suicide prevention and those who have been bereaved by suicide. The event also heard a very moving address by Ms Barbara Swanston, from Vancouver, who is a parent bereaved by suicide.
Professor Joiner said: “My main message of hope is that suicide is preventable. People get better from mental health crises. Promoting help–seeking and the immediate availability of the right treatment and community understanding are the keys to success”. He continued: “We need to stride for near perfect cooperation at crisis point and way before crisis, ensuring the safety net is wide and strong. Breaking the taboo of silence on the need for help when times are tough is so important … in the wider community quest for hope and support to break the deadly isolation of burdensomeness, isolation and consequent distress and despair.”
The event was organised by the Irish Churches Peace Project (ICPP), an initiative of the Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Presbyterian Churches, the Church of Ireland and the Irish Council of Churches. It took place on 9 October (9.30am – 2pm) in Clooney Hall, Derry / Londonderry.
Dublin Symposium on Jonathan Swift
On Saturday the 19th of October the twelfth symposium on Jonathan Swift, “Swift in 1713: On the Threshold of Saint Patrick’s”, will take place in the Deanery, on Upper Kevin Street, Dublin 8.
This conference will celebrate the tercentenary of Jonathan Swift becoming the Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The conference will be introduced by Professor Robert Mahony from the Jonathan Swift Foundation. Other speakers include Dr Aileen Douglas (Trinity Collage, Dublin), Dr Abigail Williams (St Peter’s, Oxford) , Professor Ian Higgins (Australian University Canberra), Professor Leo Damrosch (Harvard University), Professor Brean Hammond (University of Nottingham) and Professor Ivo Banac (University of Zagrab,Croatia). The speakers are followed by a reception in the Deanery.
Registration is required for this event. To register please email: dean@stpatrickscathedral.ie or phone: 01 453 9472. For more information contact. Telephone 353 1 453 9472. E-Mail education@stpatrickscathedral.ie
Children’s Minister: ‘Child abuse has not gone away…it doesn’t go away’
Journal.ie – MINISTER FRANCES FITZGERALD has told workers in the Rape Crisis Network Ireland that Ireland will not be able to reform its services immediately but warned that child abuse is not just a dark chapter in the nation’s history.
“We are not going to change things overnight,” she said on the publication of the RCNI’s report Hearing Child Survivors of Sexual Violence: Towards a National Response. “This is current.”
At the launch of the collaborative effort of 17 crisis centres, the Minister was urged to maintain funding to allow the data collection about sex abuse and rape in Ireland that informed the research to continue indefinitely.
RCNI’s Elaine Mears said learning was the only way to respond to sexual violence and that it was excellent value for money.
Mary Flaherty of CARI (Children at Risk Ireland) said the collaborative approach to data allows the NGO sector identify and fill gaps in the State’s services.
More at –
http://www.thejournal.ie/child-abuse-rcni-athlone-1122018-Oct2013/