Children and Young Persons Advisory Group (formerly PAG)

PAG are delighted to share with you our new title "The Children & Young Persons Advisory Group (CAYPAG)". 

We hope that this title reflects our focus as Occupational Therapists working in partnership with children and young people in Ireland, regardless of the service or setting in which we are based.  Children's rights, strengths-based-approaches, and participation-focused-outcomes are all prominent in current legislative, policy and service landscape literature.

In April 2023, the Paediatric Advisory Group (PAG) committee proposed a name change to our membership, arguing that "Paediatric", as a biomedical term, was not representative of how Occupational Therapists understand children and young people or the diversity of our practices.  It was noted that similar organisations and representative groups, e.g. RCOT had already adopted alternative titles, for instance "Children" or " Children and Young People". 

In July 2023, a survey to our membership attained a response rate of 21% and reported 71% in agreement with the proposal to change the title Pediatric Advisory Group to Children and Young Persons Advisory Group.  Of the 22% of respondents that were not in agreement, the primary concerns were

1. moving away from professional/medical frames/titles, and

2. potential awkwardness of  the proposed language/acronym. 

Further dialogue within the committee focused on strategies to overcome the  language issues and a consensus was reached on the  benefits and necessity of moving from medical frameworks. The AOTI Management Team formally approved the name change in January 2024.  

If you you wish to join the CAYPAG please go to https://www.aoti.ie/advisory-groups