Grants for transition from institutional to personalised models of care

Minister Moloney announces €2.6m in innovation grants for disability and mental health

29 July 2010

John Moloney T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for Disability and Mental Health today (Thursday, 29 July 2010) announced the first round of grants, totalling over €2.6m, awarded by the Genio Trust to support transition from institutional to personalised models of care in disability and mental health services. These grants follow the decision by the Minister in December 2009 regarding to allocate €3m of innovation health funding to the Trust for a special fund designed to encourage innovative, personalised supports which offer better opportunities to people with disabilities and mental ill health to reach their full potential.

“The Genio Trust is a leading example of partnership between Government and philanthropy, developed with the support of The Atlantic Philanthropies, my Office for Disability and Mental Health in the Department of Health & Children and the HSE.”, the Minister said. In his announcement Minister Moloney emphasised that “The service reforms which will be facilitated by the Genio Trust are fully in line with the objectives of Government policy as set out in A Vision for Change and with the objectives of the National Disability Strategy.”

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New Challenging Behaviour charter launched

The Challenging Behaviour - National Strategy Group has launched a charter to promote the human rights of individuals with learning disabilities who are perceived as challenging. 

Up to 27,000 people with learning disabilities in the UK may have been given a label of challenging behaviour, resulting in this group of people being: 

- stigmatised and socially excluded - denied the right to ordinary lives in the community, to education, recreation and employment - placed in institutional settings a long way from home and families. 

The label challenging behaviour, has become misused over time. Rather than being used as a term to encourage carers and professionals to understand the underlying reasons for a person's behaviour, 'challenging behaviour' has been used as a diagnostic label, viewed as being intrinsic to the person. 

The Challenging Behaviour -National Strategy Group want people (and

organisations) to sign up to the charter to register their support for the principles it contains and to commit to action to improve the lives of children and adults who are labelled as challenging. We need as many people as possible to support us, so please ask your friends and family to sign up too.