Dr. Sarah Donnelly:

I can start on the research piece. I am not aware of any specific research on the comparative piece in Ireland. We have had several pieces desk-based research carried out by me, the Department of Health and Mazars comparing adult safeguarding systems across different jurisdictions, primarily Australia, Canada and the UK. There are elements of all the models that have positives. One of the things that struck me from my own work is the importance of empowering people to protect themselves. Often that is the best way to safeguard in terms of education and training. Things like residents' committees in nursing homes, family forums and complaints boxes are really important. We also need support mechanisms for people who are non-verbal and need communication support. Again that comes back to the multidisciplinary team approach that we need.

We need community awareness and societal awareness but also things like in-reach into the nursing homes and outreach out. There is one very good example in Ireland. A facility called CareBright in Bruff is a not-for-profit social enterprise and dementia village. It is really embedded into the local community. It has a café and a day centre. In other jurisdictions we see things like intergenerational solidarity-----