A lecturer with the Discipline of Health Promotion and former Director of the BA (Hons) Social Care and Mphil Social Care at NUI Galway, Martin pursed his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at NUI Galway. Prior to joining the Discipline of Health Promotion, Martin held posts both with IT Carlow and the Adult and Continuing Education Centre, NUI Galway. Martins research interests are broad and include social care theory and practice, workforce development, regulation, standards and care planning, risk, interdisciplinary working, social policy and adult education.

Social care theory and practice Care planningCare workforce and development Social policyAdult educationRisk and regulation MELODIC The MELODIC project is an EU4Health funded project focused on the mental health needs of young adults (18-35) who have been diagnosed with cancer and their familycaregivers, as well as health and social care professionals supporting these young adults. The project will include the development and testing of an intervention to support young people and their familycaregivers, as well as the development of training and education materials for health and social care professionals around screening, early identification and management of the mental health needs of young people diagnosed with cancer.The coordinator is Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland, with partners in Finland University of Turku and Southwest Finland Well-being Region, Belgium European Cancer Organisation, Greece Cancer Guidance Centre and Panepistimio Dytikis, Estonia Tartu Health Care College and Tartu Ulikooli Hospital Foundation, Ireland University of Galway and Cancer Care West, Netherlands Erasmus Universitair Meisch Centrum, Portugal Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa, and Romania Fundatia Youth Cancer Europe. Further information available at - a target=_blank rel=nofollow href=https:melodic.turkuamk.fihttps:melodic.turkuamk.fi Simply4Emotions. The Simply4Emotions project is Erasmus+ funded and is focused on the creation and development of a simulation game to assist health and social care professionals in enhancing emotional regulation and resilience. Recruitment and retention of health and social care workforces across the globe has been a particular challenge since the Covid-19 pandemic and thus supporting health and social care professionals in enhancing their resilience has never been more important. This project is co-ordinated by DHBW Stuggart, Germany and in addition to University of Galway are partner organisations in Italy Instituto per Servizi di Ricovero e Assistenza agli Anziani, Finland Turku University of Applied Sciences, Stuggart Wohlfahrtswerk, and two in Greece Frodizo and Challedu. Further information available at - a target=_blank rel=nofollow href=https:simply4emotions.euhttps:simply4emotions.eu EduSexAge. EDUcation for healthy SEXuality in older Age. Edusexage is an Erasmus+ funded 2 year project that aims to raise awareness of the sexual health and intimacy needs of older people. This project is aimed at both older people and the health and social care professionals and aims to raise awareness of this taboo issue and to support older people and health and social care professionals in challenging stereotypes. The project is co-ordinated by ESeniors (France), with partners including Universita delle LiberEta (Italy), The Rural Hub (Ireland), Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg (Germany), Fakulteta za zdravstvene in sociaine vede Slovenj Gradec (Slovenia), Instalofi Levante SI (Spain), and National University of Ireland, Galway. a target=_blank rel=nofollow href=https:www.eseniors.euerasmushttps:www.eseniors.euerasmus PRAGRESS Preventing and reducing aggression and violence of older people in long-term care. Pragress is an Erasmus+ funded 3 year project aimed at preventing and reducing aggression and violence of older people requiring care, through development of education and training materials for formal and informal carers. These materials will be freely available online. The project partners include education and care providers, and the project co-ordinator is Duale Hochschule Baden-Wurttemburg (Germany), with partners including Wohlfahrtswerk Fur-Baden Wurttemburg (Germany), Istituto per Servizi di Ricovero e Assistenza agli Anziani (Italy), Challedu (Greece), Corporation for Succor and Care of Elderly and Disabled. Frodizo (Greece), Turun Ammattikorkeakoulu OY (Finland), and National University of Ireland, Galway. a target=_blank rel=nofollow href=https:pragress.euhttps:pragress.eu Family Caregivers Support Family Caregivers Support is an Erasmus+ funded project around developing resources, materials and strategies for supporting carers to manage the mental and emotional demands of caring. The project is a collaboration between education and training partners including the Association for Interdisciplinary Education and Consulting (ECC, Austria), Center for Social Innovation (CSISY, Cyprus), Institute for Development of Human Potentials (INTEGRA, Slovenia), Polytechnic Institute of Porto (IPP, Portugal), Italian University Line (IUL, Italy), University of Rijeka (MERDI, Croatia), Qualification and Education (QUALED, Slovakia), and National University of Ireland, Galway (HPRC, Ireland). The resources and materials will be available online and as a mobile app and will be available in the languages of the project partners and also in Arabic and Pashtun. Further details and updates on the project can be found at a target=_blank rel=nofollow href=http:www.family-caregiver-support.euwww.family-caregiver-support.eu Smart Patients Smart Patients is a 2 year Erasmus+ funded project lead by Merdi (University of Rijeka, Croatia). The project partners include Wissenschaftsinitiative Niederosterrich (Austria), Integra Institut (Slovenia), QUALED (Slovakia), Was hab ich? (Germany), Instituto Politecnico do Porto (Portugal), GUNET (Greece) and NUI Galway (Ireland). One of the EU Health Strategys concrete themes includes empowering citizens putting patients at the heart of the system and encouraging them to be involved in managing their own healthcare needs. Preventive care should therefore not be left alone to doctors and hospitals. Rather individuals must be empowered and become a smart patient and full stakeholder. In line with this strategy, this project is focused on developing online tools for citizens to assist them in become Smart Patients - a target=_blank rel=nofollow href=http:smartpatientinfo.euhttp:smartpatientinfo.eu IntimAge. IntimAge was a 2 year Erasmus+ funded project led by the University College of Health Sciences, Slovenji Gradec, Slovenia. The project drew together a range of educational and training providers from Austria (Association for Interdisciplinary Education and Consulting), Germany (Friedrich-Alexander University), Slovenia (Integra Institut), Italy (University delle LiberEta), the U.K. (University of Sheffield), Ireland (National University of Ireland, Galway) and Greece (GUnet the Greece Academic Network). IntimAge had two aims. 1. To raise awareness of the challenges that older people can confront around intimacy and sexual health, especially when engaging with health and social care professionals. 2. To develop resources for health and social care professionals to assist them in practice. The outputs from IntimAge are a series of modules for health and social care professionals and a guide for trainers. All are freely available, in English, German, Greek, Italian and Slovenian at - - a target=_blank rel=nofollow href=http:etraining.intimage.gunet.grhttp:etraining.intimage.gunet.gr The IntimAge materials received endorsement by Social Care Ireland in November 2016 as a continued professional development (CPD) resource.

Martins teaching interests include social care theory and practice, social policy and health promotion. Martins teaching experience has been gained over a number of years, as he has been responsible for teaching on a variety of coursesmodules to diverse learner populations. In this time Martin has taught undergraduate and postgraduate learners drawn from diverse socio-cultural learner populations, including traditional post-leaving certificate learners, non-traditional learners (mature and in-service learners), non-national and, international students. This teaching has been delivered to both large (150+) and small (15-30) learner groups through a range of methods, including traditional didactic lectures, blended learning and enquiry based learning. In addition, Martin has been an examiner for undergraduate programmes and MA and PhD thesis. Recent PhD candidates. Dr. Elena Vaughan Title - Sex, stigma and silence: Sexual politics and the discursive construction of HIV in Ireland. The aim of this study was to investigate the discourse of HIV and the phenomena of HIV-related stigma in Ireland. The study drew upon theories of language and ideology by theorists such as Foucault and Bourdieu and applied a Critical Discourse Analysis framework in the analysis of media and policy texts pertaining to HIV. In addition, interviews with people living with HIV were conducted in order to evaluate their experiences of stigma and discrimination. Ms. Jaroslava VelartovaDefining and managing risk in adult social care disability services. This research will explore understandings that surround the manner in which risk is defined, perceived and operationalised by stakeholders. While risk assessment has become ubiquitous in social care, service users, social care staff and service provider managers often approach risks differently. As a consequence, there can be challenges to balancing competing demands of independence, autonomy, health, safety and duty of care.