Persons with disability will soon be able to access sex education and parental skills training following a collaboration between the University of Malta and AÄ¡enzija Sapport.
AÄ¡enzija Sapport will be offering services to persons with disability, including persons with intellectual disability. The services will include sex education related to procreation and parenting.
This is made possible by an investment of €14,000 by which included a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Agency and the Faculty for Social Wellbeing that initiated an action research project that included empirical research with disabled parents, training of professionals and the purchase of sex education resources.
Amongst these resources are innovative hands on life size models including the foetal developmental kit, the birth model kit and the birth process kit. Furthermore, the Agency purchased the RealCare® Baby 3, which is the world’s most advanced infant simulator. Educators around the world use this unique learning aid to teach early childhood, parenting, infant parenting skills during sex education. This smart baby gives a real life experience of the meaning and responsibility of having a baby using wireless programming that tracks and reports caregiver behaviours in order to assess and support prospective parents in acquiring the required parenting skill.
The investment further endorsed training by international experts in the field on comprehensive, competence based assessments and evidence based parenting skills training.
This was announced by Hon. Julia Farrugia Portelli, Malta’s Minister for Inclusion and Social Wellbeing.
Hon. Farrugia Portelli said that this programme was laid out after a project was conducted by the Department of Disability Studies at the University of Malta’s Faculty for Social Wellbeing.
Dr Claire Lucille Azzopardi Lane, the Deputy Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing and the Head of the Department of Disability Studies, led the research project.
At the launch, Dr Azzopardi Lane said this consisted of both research done with parents with disability, and training of professionals who support persons with disability to make more well-informed decisions on sexual and reproductive health choices.
