Analysis of the Legal Meaning of Article 27 of the UN CRPD: Key Challenges for Adapted Work Settings

The UN CRPD marks a shift of thinking in the disability sector; it lays down the premises for the enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and it demands State parties to put into place proper structures and services to make sure the conditions for enjoyment of human rights are respected. From the experience of the UN Standard Rules, the United Nations have further elaborated on the current international treaty on disability, the UN CRPD, and further deepened its impact at international level. Adapted work settings, commonly known also as sheltered workshops, are not referred to in the UNCRPD. This requires clarifications for the thousands of people that benefit from their services and whose future looks therefore uncertain. This report focuses on the role of adapted work settings in the international framework provided by the UNCRPD; in particular, special attention has been given to Article 26 and 27, as they both deal with principles, measures and services offered by adapted work settings. The analysis was carried out starting from three main subjects: - what the Convention brought in general terms through its paradigm shift and the subsequent challenges for social services - the analysis of the current text of Article 26 and 27 and the links to the role of sheltered workshop matters - the history of the discussions around the inclusion of sheltered workshops in the UN CRPD. Article 26 dealing with issues concerning the “functioning” of the individual, renews the entitlement to habilitation and rehabilitation service, the latter considered as going beyond the medical sense of it, keeping a connotation of a non-permanent treatment. Article 27 concerns the right to work, which should lead to the possibility to gain a living and lead a life of dignity. Most sheltered workshops, that are providing rehabilitation and work related activities, seem, according to some, to be not fully compliant with either of the two articles as they provide rehabilitation-based activities on an on-going basis and offer work without fully guaranteeing conditions applying under the labour law. This concern emerged as well during the negotiation activities of the UN CRPD and was partly responsible for their exclusion from the current article on the right to work. However, the implementation of the Convention presents some challenges, especially when it comes to rights and obligations concerning overlapping fields of action, as may be the case for Article 26 and 27. Services like sheltered workshops may sometimes and very often fulfill more than one function for persons with disabilities, and thus their compliance to the UN CRPD articles is particularly sensitive. In the framework of a holistic approach to persons with disabilities, where disability itself is not the focus of attention, but everything is about the individual and the enjoyment of his rights, it is of utter importance to keep a good balance between the multitude of skills, personal choices, possibilities of individual development and society’s response. This report looks at the possible links existing between sheltered workshops and the UN CRPD in order to gain a view on the state of play and on future developments needed in the provision of work opportunities to persons with (intellectual) disabilities

Difficult entry and return to the labor market : on the professional (re)integration of people with disabilities and chronic health conditions in Poland : the PATHWAYS research project

Objectives: The objective of this study is to present the barriers existing in Poland to professional integration and reintegration of people with chronic diseases, including mental health conditions, and discuss them on the basis of expert opinions and in comparison with the situation in other European countries. Material and Methods: The research methodology was based on a mixed-methods approach, including literature review, in-depth expert interviews, and a survey (based on a structured questionnaire) performed with experts. Results: The mapping of policies, systems and services facilitating the integration and reintegration of people with chronic diseases in Poland, as well as expert opinions, made it possible to identify many barriers regarding access to support, such as an obligation to have a certificate of disability, and a system of certification by 2 institutions. There are also barriers regarding the support itself, including problems with subsidies and with professional (re)integration services. Conclusions: Poland has a multilevel and multi-sector system of public institutions, which should provide support for people with disabilities and chronic diseases. Nevertheless, the research conducted in Poland indicates an insufficient implementation of the existing solutions

Mapping European Welfare Models: State of the Art of Strategies for Professional Integration and Reintegration of Persons with Chronic Diseases

Background: Persons with chronic diseases (PwCDs) often experience work-related problems, and innovative actions to improve their participation in the labor market are needed. In the frame of the European (EU) Pathways Project, the aim of the study is to compare existing strategies (policies, systems, and services) for professional (re-)integration of PwCDs and mental health conditions available at both European and national level between different European welfare models: Scandinavian, Continental, Anglo-Saxon, Mediterranean, and “Post-Communist”. Method: The European strategies were identified by an overview of relevant academic and grey literature searched through Medline and internet searches, while national strategies were explored through questionnaires and in-depth interviews with national relevant stakeholders. Results: The mapping of existing strategies revealed that, both at European and national level, PwCDs are often considered as part of the group of “persons with disabilities” and only in this case they can receive employment support. European countries put in place actions to support greater labor market participation, but these differ from country to country. Conclusion: Strategies targeting “persons with disabilities” do not necessarily address all the needs of persons with chronic diseases. Countries should consider the importance of employment for all to achieve smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth

Restart errors reaction time of a two-step inhibition process account for the violation of the race model’s independence in multi-effector selective stop signal task

Goal-oriented actions often require the coordinated movement of two or more effectors. Sometimes multi-effector movements need to be adjusted according to a continuously changing environment, requiring stopping an effector without interrupting the movement of the others. This form of control has been investigated by the selective Stop Signal Task (SST), requiring the inhibition of an effector of a multicomponent action. This form of selective inhibition has been hypothesized to act through a two-step process, where a temporary global inhibition deactivating all the ongoing motor responses is followed by a restarting process that reactivates only the moving effector. When this form of inhibition takes place, the reaction time (RT) of the moving effector pays the cost of the previous global inhibition. However, it is poorly investigated if and how this cost delays the RT of the effector that was required to be stopped but was erroneously moved (Stop Error trials). Here we measure the Stop Error RT in a group of participants instructed to simultaneously rotate the wrist and lift the foot when a Go Signal occurred, and interrupt both movements (non-selective Stop version) or only one of them (selective Stop version) when a Stop Signal was presented. We presented this task in two experimental conditions to evaluate how different contexts can influence a possible proactive inhibition on the RT of the moving effector in the selective Stop versions. In one context, we provided the foreknowledge of the effector to be inhibited by presenting the same selective or non-selective Stop versions in the same block of trials. In a different context, while providing no foreknowledge of the effector(s) to be stopped, the selective and non-selective Stop versions were intermingled, and the information on the effector to be stopped was delivered at the time of the Stop Signal presentation. We detected a cost in both Correct and Error selective Stop RTs that was influenced by the different task conditions. Results are discussed within the framework of the race model related to the SST, and its relationship with a restart model developed for selective versions of this paradigm

Reward prospect affects strategic adjustments in stop signal task

Interaction with the environment requires us to predict the potential reward that will follow our choices. Rewards could change depending on the context and our behavior adapts accordingly. Previous studies have shown that, depending on reward regimes, actions can be facilitated (i.e., increasing the reward for response) or interfered (i.e., increasing the reward for suppression). Here we studied how the change in reward perspective can influence subjects’ adaptation strategy. Students were asked to perform a modified version of the Stop-Signal task. Specifically, at the beginning of each trial, a Cue Signal informed subjects of the value of the reward they would receive; in one condition, Go Trials were rewarded more than Stop Trials, in another, Stop Trials were rewarded more than Go Trials, and in the last, both trials were rewarded equally. Subjects participated in a virtual competition, and the reward consisted of points to be earned to climb the leaderboard and win (as in a video game contest). The sum of points earned was updated with each trial. After a learning phase in which the three conditions were presented separately, each subject performed 600 trials testing phase in which the three conditions were randomly mixed. Based on the previous studies, we hypothesized that subjects could employ different strategies to perform the task, including modulating inhibition efficiency, adjusting response speed, or employing a constant behavior across contexts. We found that to perform the task, subjects preferentially employed a strategy-related speed of response adjustment, while the duration of the inhibition process did not change significantly across the conditions. The investigation of strategic motor adjustments to reward’s prospect is relevant not only to understanding how action control is typically regulated, but also to work on various groups of patients who exhibit cognitive control deficits, suggesting that the ability to inhibit can be modulated by employing reward prospects as motivational factors

AMBRA1 phosphorylation by CDK1 and PLK1 regulates mitotic spindle orientation

AMBRA1 is a crucial factor for nervous system development, and its function has been mainly associated with autophagy. It has been also linked to cell proliferation control, through its ability to regulate c-Myc and D-type cyclins protein levels, thus regulating G1-S transition. However, it remains still unknown whether AMBRA1 is differentially regulated during the cell cycle, and if this pro-autophagy protein exerts a direct role in controlling mitosis too. Here we show that AMBRA1 is phosphorylated during mitosis on multiple sites by CDK1 and PLK1, two mitotic kinases. Moreover, we demonstrate that AMBRA1 phosphorylation at mitosis is required for a proper spindle function and orientation, driven by NUMA1 protein. Indeed, we show that the localization and/or dynamics of NUMA1 are strictly dependent on AMBRA1 presence, phosphorylation and binding ability. Since spindle orientation is critical for tissue morphogenesis and differentiation, our findings could account for an additional role of AMBRA1 in development and cancer ontogenesis