January 2015 NUI Galway Conference on Legal Rights of Older People

NUI Galway will hold a one-day conference to address and discuss a number of key legal and policy issues of relevance to older persons in Ireland. Organised by the Mental Health Rights Group and the LLM in International and Comparative Disability Law at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy, School of Law, NUI Galway in conjunction with the Employment Law Association of Ireland, the conference, ‘Law and the Older Person’ will take place on Saturday, 24 January.

The conference is timely in examining specific issues of relevance to older people who are often overlooked in decision-making that impacts on their lives, whether at a personal level or more broadly from a societal perspective.

Dr Mary Keys is the conference organiser: “There are topical and challenging issues being addressed at this event. We will discuss the role of advocacy in upholding the rights of older people, the Fair Deal scheme and the proposed Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013 from both legal and medical perspectives. The conference will also explore age discrimination including the mandatory retirement age and aspects of legal practice and the older client.”

‘Law and the Older Person’ will bring together many leading commentators from the fields of law, medicine and practice including: NUI Galway’s Professor Eamon O’Shea and Ursula Connolly; Mervyn Taylor, Service Manager, Sage; Patricia T. Rickard Clarke, Solicitor; Dr Shaun O’Keefe, Geriatrician; Mary Condell, Solicitor; Claire Bruton, Barrister; and Maria Dillon, Solicitor.

The conference will provide an opportunity for discussion, and debate and will be of particular relevance to older persons, to carers, advocates, health care practitioners, lawyers, researchers, and independent sector service providers and policy activists.

For more information on the programme and on registration please visit: http://conference.ie/.

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