Report of an audit of child protection research in Ireland 1990-2009.

A total of 190 research documents were identified in line with the criteria agreed between the researchers and the CAAB, and are included in the audit. The key findings from the analysis of the audit are as follows:    - Research identified in the audit has tended to focus on child protection and the child protection system generally, as well as sexual abuse. This research has primarily been undertaken by clinicians and academics, and spans across sectors.   - Over half, (110 or 58%) of the research falls under the heading of policy/practice reviews/analysis. This is further reflected in the fact that the research most commonly focused on operating procedures, followed by practice issues and the policy framework, both in studies with a single focus and those with multiple foci.   - The most common type of publication was peer reviewed article (74 or 39%), with commissioned research accounting for just 7% (13). This is in line with the findings that 68% (128) of commissioning/publishing bodies and 74% (139) of research bodies were in the academic sector.   - The research published and/or commissioned by the statutory sector follows the pattern found in the audit generally, with the most common type of study being policy/practice review/analysis (27 or 48%) and the most common focus being operating procedures (22 or 39%).   - Information sources rarely incorporated primary research with children, with only 14 studies (8%) citing direct contact with children and young people. Information on children was more commonly gathered from case files, professionals and family members.   - The topics covered in the identified research were very wide-ranging but closely related to the primary subject area (type of abuse) and the sector in which the research was located.   One conclusion stated that: There is a shortage of child protection-focused research on the factors that cause and perpetuate child abuse, such as homelessness, addiction, parental mental illness and domestic violence. The need for material on these areas is demonstrated by the nature and scale of reports to the child protection system and the removal of some children from their families into out of home care as a result of the above mentioned adversities.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

The Irish alcohol misuser in England: Ill served by research and policy? Some suggestions for future research opportunities.

Inequalities in the physical and psychological health of the first- and second-generation Irish subjects have been well documented. Despite the fact that the Irish alcohol misuser is subject to a number of unhelpful stereotypes, the research concerning alcohol misuse in the Irish is surprisingly sparse. What little exists indicates that Irish alcohol misusers tend to fit the profile of the "chronic alcoholic." Specifically, they tend to be older (45 years +) and to have impaired physical and psychological health. Not surprisingly this is accompanied by poor longitudinal outcomes. Furthermore, alcohol problems worsen as a result of migration (this phenomenon is not restricted to the UK). Alcohol and drug services are now frequently merged, and policy is directed towards the visible young illicit drug user. This paper argues that inadvertently Irish alcohol misusers are discriminated against as a result. Future avenues of research are outlined to provide services and policy makers with data to plan services taking full account of the needs of Irish alcohol misusers.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

CARDI Research Brief: Future demand for long-term care in Ireland

With the population across the island of Ireland growing older, the issue of how to provide and pay for care in the home and in residential settings is becoming more urgent. It is important that a strategy for providing long-term care for an ageing population is put in place, and understanding what the demand for care will be is a major part of this. As a result, CARDI funded a research project led by Professor Charles Normand at Trinity College Dublin which aimed to develop a predictive model of future long-term care demand in NI and ROI.This research brief contains information collated by CARDI and a summary of the findings in the full report, Towards the Development of a Predictive Model of Long-Term Care Demand for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Wren et al., 2012).