"Health, quality of life, handicap". This theme is one of the five research axes developed by the MSH Lorraine. Follows are inter-disciplinary projects like Handiquality (Handiqualité) or SEXHI which should result in concrete proposals. How can the integration of persons with reduced mobility be improved in all areas of life, public and private? With Handiquality the Lorraine region Humanities and Social Sciences Center, plans to give concrete answers. Launched in 2009 for three years, this emerging project studies "the efforts of national and European institutional structures" in this area. Notably, it plans to " disseminate positive experiences ". Above all, the stakes concern health: "We suppose that the lack of accessibility slowly leads to social isolation which can cause stress or depression" Lydia Peter, psychology researcher at the UPV-M and coordinator of Handiquality, explains. The first stage consists in establishing the actual state of the environment and target population through interviews. The originality of this work is that they are interested in the psychological aspects connected with independence and the study should produce "original data". Another subject being studied at the Lorraine region MSH is "sexuality and handicap in the institution". The goal of this project, SEXHI, is to define "the desirable between permitted and forbidden" within the framework of the law on the equality of opportunities for handicapped persons (February 11, 2005). "France is only starting to approach this taboo question whereas The Netherlands and Switzerland have already had several years of reflection and experience". SEXHI analyses situations in order to characterize them as "conflicts or areas of uncertainty that arise when a person sees his independence altered by a deficiency". The project associates lawyers, psychologists, historians…The inter-disciplinary approach enables one to "consider sexuality in the institution in its entirety, with its functional, emotional or cultural dimensions". The program will end in the autumn of 2011. And, at the end of 36 months of research, it foresees building a specialized observatory and creating recommendations to be used by professionals who are "often disadvantaged" in daily life when confronting this problem. SEXHI, Handiquality and also Handikayak... Projects that are integrated into the research "axis 5" developed by the Lorraine region MSH and entitled "Health, quality of life, handicap". This axis concerns six laboratories : BETA, Physiology Laboratory, InterPsy, LPHS, LPUL and ISCRIMED-CRDP. It prolongs the "common and concerted" policy of the four Lorraine region universities in order to support handicapped students by giving "more importance to a reception mechanism and follow-up that's unique in France".
© photo : Franz Pfluegl - Fotolia.com

MSH Lorraine : Social Sciences and Humanities Institute Intended to support and promote international and pluridisciplinary research in Humanities and Social Sciences in the Lorraine region, the Social Sciences and Humanities Institute works on projects.

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