The Willingness Team and Betapsi once again curated a spectacular event that members of The Third Eye team were lucky enough to join. Clayton Seguna, Betapsi President, started off the day by welcoming everyone to the conference, introducing Betapsi, and thanking all the collaborators for making the event possible. Following that, Matthew Bartolo elaborated on the importance of discussing family, especially in 2021.

“We are breaking away from what should be, and moving onto what could be.”

Matthew Bartolo

Adding to this comment, Matthew not only described how we are breaking away from the norms set by society on what relationships and families should be but also how we are celebrating this change.

The role of family in gender transitions

In her keynote speech, Ruth Micallef set the pace of the entire conference by taking us through the transition process of her son. By being transparent Ruth allowed us to better understand all the aspects of this journey, from the hardships she and her son went through, to the fulfilment they received for going through them.

“You grieve the loss of your daughter until you can celebrate the birth of your son.”

Ruth Micallef

She finished off by narrating the progress they have made as a family, and how they now face new challenges such as the usual problems that come with teenagers.

Case review

Following the keynote speech, the willingness team presented a case review which encouraged a discussion on possible ways forward to deal with the issues a couple had as described by the case itself. 

The review dealt with Saviour and Felicity, a couple who decided to seek help after Saviour was experiencing sleeping difficulties. The discussion was led by Danica Cassar who went into detail about the issues the couple was facing and highlighted other contributing factors in the case, such as each individual’s background. After the stage was set, a variety of input was given by people involved in the case such as Dr Candace Adams, and by participants alike, who continued to add their own insights into the case. Some of the suggestions were to look into things like financial stressors and even the couple’s intimacy.

The case study was wrapped up with each speaker giving final comments in their respective area, from health to relationship psychology.

Same-sex parenting

After a series of workshops, Noel and Chris from TwoPapasMalta described their life together as a family. They recounted every step of the way from when how they met, to the day they got married in 2016, and even when they were amongst the few same-sex couples to adopt from Portugal in 2019.

“Our objective is to promote awareness about same-sex families and to inspire others who might eventually embark on the adoption journey.”

Noel and Chris

Noel and Chris gave a variety of insights about the adoption process and continued to elaborate on how their family functions very similarly to a heterosexual one, without the need to distinguish between a male or female role within the household.

Conclusion

Matthew Bartolo brought an end to the conference by celebrating the 94 attendees present at the conference, stating that the online nature of the event made it particularly unique from the other ones. He wrapped everything up by providing more information about the newly released Family Clinic “where all families are welcome”.

The Third Eye would like to congratulate everyone behind 360° for hosting such a captivating conference, and look forward to whatever they have in store for the future.

Check out last year’s conference!

The post Everything you missed from the Family 360° conference appeared first on The Third Eye.

What is 360°?

The concept of 360° was launched in 2014 between Betapsi Malta and Willingness Team as an approach whereby different relevant and current topics are tackled from a multidisciplinary point of view from professionals in numerous fields, including psychology, health, education, social work, youth work, medicine, law, criminology, religion, sociology, philosophy, and various others.

This initiative helps to eliminate certain taboos that have been around on various topics such as addiction, children, sex, families, sexualities, and many more! Individuals with different professions will give their insight and experience on each of the topics. With the help of these discussions, the audience will be able to tackle case studies and look at the world from a broader perspective.

Family 360 HYBRID on Campus

Before the annual conference, the Willingness Team hosts a workshop where you get a taste of what the conference will be talking about. Check out last year’s workshop!

A case study will be discussed and the professionals from the Willingness Team will be tackling the case from different perspectives together with the audience, bringing the 360° multidisciplinary approach to life!

If you are interested in attending, today is the last chance to sign up!

• Date: 24th February
• Time: 12:00PM
• Venue: Online

Family 360° HYBRID Conference: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Family 360° is back, with bigger topics and broader perspectives! This will also be their first HYBRID conference. A HYBRID conference means that local and international participants will get together to discuss the topic at hand.

If you are curious about the type of topics that will be discussed, check out our last year’s article where The Third Eye covered the Sex 360° conference.

Yesterday, 360° launched their full programme! Dr Charlie Azzopardi, Prof Jean Calleja Agius, Dr Candace Adams and Christopher Vella Galea together with Noel Vella Galea (AKA TwoPapas) are some of the speakers for this event!

If you are interested in attending, today is the last chance to sign up!

• Date: 6th March
• Time: 8AM till 5PM
• Venue: Willingness Team Hub

We hope to see you all there!

The post A discussion on the Family with 360° | A multidisciplinary approach appeared first on The Third Eye.

Written by Ms. Gabrielle Grixti and Ms. Daniela Chatlani (SCOME Team)

On the 20th of February, SCOME, the Medical Education Standing Committee within MMSA, organised their annual Research Conference. Over 100 members of MMSA were present, showing enthusiasm for their own search for research!

There were various sessions within this conference, delivered by a series of professionals. The first speaker was Prof. Julian Mamo, who gave a short introduction as to what research really is, and then gave a very interactive session regarding Case-Control Studies. He encouraged all the students to find their own personal area of interest within the medical field and start their own research projects, to start branching out into the world of research.

Dr. Beatrice Farrugia then spoke about what Qualitative analysis is within research, by giving us a series of examples and sharing with us novel studies. Following this, there was an interactive workshop conducted by Dr. Alexander Clayman, who explained what Ecological studies are. He then provided the students with a series of case studies, to analyse the best research techniques which should be used if they were conducting the research study.

The Minima Medica magazine

One of the highlights of SCOME’s Research Conference was the official launch of the Minima Medica magazine.

Minima Medica is MMSA’s research journal, which was revived this year, the last edition being that of 2016. This magazine acts as an opportunity for medical students to start branching out into the vast field of research. The magazine consists of both literature reviews and clinical cases.

This magazine will be published on HyDi to be made available for all university students to access. Having Minima on HyDi makes it recognisable for the FY program, which is excellent for the students who took part.

The editors of Minima described the lengthy process of the magazine. Every author who wrote an article for Minima gave a short 5-minute presentation describing the research that they conducted, how they wrote their paper, and why they choose that field, to engage the rest of the students present. The students also had the opportunity to ask the authors questions about their work.

To access our Minima Medica 2020 Magazine, click here.

Congratulations go to the writers for their dedication:

• Ms. Charmaine Cordina
• Mr. Miguel Vella
• Dr. Kimberly Hallett
• Ms. Gabriella Debono
• Ms. Hannah Xuereb
• Mr. Adam Al Gededi
• Mr. Mark Miruzzi.

A SCOME and SCORE collaboration

During the Research Conference, there was also a collaboration of SCOME with the Exchanges-Out Team regarding Research Exchange (SCORE) opportunities for medical students. Students who have gone on exchanges in the past few years shared their experiences to encourage students to go on such a great learning experience. Finally, the Intercalated Year was discussed by Mr. Peter Sciberras, where he shared exactly what this additional year as part of the medical course entails, and shared his own experience, about how this year provided him with the opportunity to conduct his own professional research in Malta.

The conference was a great success, and we hope that all those who attended were inspired and encouraged to become more involved in research throughout their years as medical students and their professional lives. Research truly is a tight rope walk, but no rewarding challenge is ever easy.

The post MMSA revives their research journal at their annual conference appeared first on The Third Eye.

“The fact that I work in a multidisciplinary team helps me understand the legal perspective of separation, the children’s perspective on separation, and what other schools of thought think about the issue that I am dealing with while working with my client. I would say that all professions involved are getting a more holistic and round view of the same issue. Then when we report back to our clients, we are giving a much fuller service without having to refer them all to a lot of different people and without trying to fix it all ourselves. That is the whole concept of 360°”.

Matthew Bartolo, Founder of Willingness

The workshop revolved around the case of Jessica, where professionals from the Willingness team tackled the case from different perspectives. Participants were split into three groups all with a different mentor in a specialised profession.

An overview of the case

Jessica is a five-year-old girl and is perceived as a very sweet person. That being said, she gets a lot of emotional outbursts especially when her dad is around. The only way she sleeps is between the parents and her parents are fighting a lot due to this issue. This is mostly because the father does not want the child to sleep between then.

Joe is a 43-year-old man, very distant and always messing around with his car in his garage. He does not spend much time with his wife or his daughter. He is soon approaching retirement as he works as a soldier and he is worried about being bored.

Anna is a 38-year-old woman who is constantly thinking about her femininity and her role as a woman. She did not bond with her child. Anna is a very dedicated teacher and focused a lot on training and won a lot of prizes. She sends Jessica to all kinds of after school activities and pusher her to be a high achiever.

The issue and the possible solutions

The main information derived from this issue was that Jessica had a traumatic birth; Anna suffered a lot whilst giving birth and has been unable to have sex since then. Although there is no physical trauma, she refuses to have sex and have had a sex-less marriage for the last five years.

Looking at the case from a sexual perspective was Matthew Bartolo, a sex therapist who was in charge of the first group. Abigail Church, a therapist with a vast counselling experience with teens, children and parents, was the mentor of the second group. She focused on Jessica’s behaviour and the atmosphere with her parents. Assigned with the third group was Karl Grech, a counsellor who holds a Master’s degree in Transcultural Counselling. He and his group focused on Joe’s behaviour.

 “Even though we have done these kinds of discussions quite often, I still learn something new every time. You are getting different perspectives, different personalities, different professions, different ages who are discussing the same issue and these are all questions that we go back to the clinic and use with our clients”.

Upcoming events

On the 7th of March, 360° is coming back with another conference to discuss broader perspectives on the topic! The speakers will be ranging from doctors and gynecologists talking about sex to a sex worker to an artist who paints nudes. This offers a variety of professionals coming together discussing sex in smaller workshops.  At the end of the conference, a symposium will be held where individuals present their own research related to sex. Other than that, the conference will also be discussing relationships, sexuality, sexual dysfunction, gender, family, and education.

Another event of theirs will be held on the 5^th of March where there will be a 3-hour long workshop called Sex and Porn Addiction. This workshop will be tackling the issues whether it is an addiction or not, and how to work with clients who have sex or porn addiction. The event will be held at Razzett l-Antik, Qormi.

More details to be out soon.

The post A discussion on sex and the family | 360° on Campus appeared first on The Third Eye.

Hon. Joseph Muscat, the Prime Minister of Malta and Hon. Dr Adrian Delia, the Leader of the Opposition took part in fireside chats, which shed light on Malta’s current issues in terms of economy and education. 

Delia stated that one of Malta’s priorities should be restoring its reputation, which to him means coming together as a country. He continued to speak about Malta’s education system, by saying that we need to better and invest more focus on Malta’s current approach to education. When it comes to Malta’s financial sector, Delia fears how it is being viewed from abroad. He believes that there is a “need to reinstate a robust banking system”, in order to deal with predatory competitors.

During Muscat’s Fireside chat, he mentioned that Malta’s talent shortage is a gender issue. Even though most graduates are women, their involvement in the workforce still remains low. He believes that the answers to this issue are; gender mainstreaming, investing in education and attracting foreign talent. Lastly, Muscat believes that one of the main contributors to Malta’s growth within the next few years will come through the focus and change in climate policy.

The conference itself was focused on this year’s topic which was NextWave, focusing on the future of various industries and advancements in both technology and innovation. The forum introduces ways of how businesses can ensure that they are keeping up with Malta’s dynamic landscape.

EY Malta’s Director EU Advisory, Simon L Barbieri led a discussion on the results of EY’s annual Malta Attractiveness Survey. One of the main focuses of this report was discussing Malta’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attractiveness and what businesses can improve on to further their growth.

In 2019, Malta established a 77% FDI which is a 3% growth from 2018’s 74%. One of the areas that Malta struggles with is talent shortage, in fact results show that only 26% of investors are able to recruit their required personnel. Despite this, 80% of investors said they believe that the will still be operating in Malta in 10 years’ time.

The post Economy, Education and more from Muscat and Delia | EY Malta appeared first on The Third Eye.

Written by Jeanelle Mercieca Grech

On 10th April 2019, law students were in attendance of GħSL’s ‘The Supremacy of EU Conference’, which was aimed at discussing, debating, and deeply dissecting the supremacy of the European Union.

Present at the conference was Dr Mark Harwood, Director of the European Direct Information Centre at the Institute of European Studies in Malta, who gave an introductory speech. Joining him was Dr Elena Grech, who currently occupies the office of Head of Commission Representation in Malta. Dr Ivan Mifsud. Head of Department of Public Law, also gave a keynote speech, introducing the panellists. He ended his speech by congratulating GħSL’s hard working executive team and hopes that the academics further provide their assistance to the society which is by students, for students.

The first panel was moderated by Emma Sammut, who currently holds the position of Publications Officer within the society. She introduced the speakers: Professor Andrea Pierini from the University of Perugia, Dr Austin Bencini, Dr Tonio Borg, and Dr Ivan Mifsud. The four professors aimed at discussing domestic issues taking on a constitutional approach. They cited several notable cases from the European Court of Justice, and dissected the concepts of supremacy, primacy, and direct effect of Union laws. Furthermore, they underlined the struggle between the EU and Member State constitutions, whilst also making mention of Article 6 of the Constitution of Malta. In light of this, some comparisons were also made to the nature of the United Kingdom’s constitution, which is unwritten and not supreme.

Ultimately, they concluded that the European Union is sui generis and that it is highly unlikely to become a “United State of Europe.”

Additionally, the current affairs in the United Kingdom with regards to the Brexit ordeal may be the consequence of having a parliamentary, rather than constitutional, supremacy. They also believe that in the driving seat of any end-product is a Member State’s parliament in the relationship between the respective Member State and the European Union.

After a quick coffee break, the second panel convened. Dr Ivan Mifsud moderated the panel, and Dr Ivan Sammut and the Hon. Borg Barthet were the panellists. They delved deeply into the “us and them” mentality and compared accession into the Union to a marriage of convenience. When asked about their opinions on supremacy, they likened it to a poison, especially since it comes in the form of rules, and it may be what ultimately led to Brexit. They also asserted that the main issue with Brexit was that the UK did no longer allow the freedom of movement of persons, whereas it allowed the movement of goods, capital, and services. They realised that this goes contrary to the concept on which the European Coal and Steel Community was formed, that is the four freedoms.

From a community standpoint, it was concluded that once a Member States accepts to join the European Union, they must find a solution to give primacy to Union laws and that contradictory laws are unacceptable if a state wishes to be part of the common market. Thus, they drew up a different conclusion than the first panel, which focused more on domestic issues.

After the conference, we interviewed Dr Mifsud to see what he had to say about the conference and about student life.

He firstly praised GħSL for the organisation and success of the conference, only wishing that more time for discussion was allotted. Dr Mifsud believes the relationship that the Faculty of Laws and GħSL have nurtured along the years has been fruitful, and hopes that academics will further aid students in their furtherance of implementing impressive changes. He also noted that more often than not, students are reluctant to ask for advice or help from their lecturers, as the former often paint their professors in a negative light and thus encourages students to change their perspectives about their lecturers. We also asked him how a student can make change happen, by which he advises students to take an active approach and ensure that they strike a balance of study and student activism.

The post Is EU Law Above Our Law? | GħSL appeared first on The Third Eye.