Award for social inclusion work

Professor Malcolm MacLachlan has won the 2018 British Psychological Society Award for Promoting Equality of Opportunity. The honour is given to psychologists who make an exceptional and sustained contribution to challenging social inequalities in relation to gender, race, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age.

Professor of Psychology and Social Inclusion and Director of the recently established Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute at Maynooth University, Ireland, MacLachlan is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of both the BPS and of the Psychological Society of Ireland. He has worked as an academic, clinician, organisational consultant and policy adviser in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America; with government, civil society, corporates and United Nations agencies.

Throughout his career he has focused on the social inclusion of marginalised groups, specifically those on lower incomes, cultural and ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. MacLachlan is currently the Research and Innovation Lead for the World Health Organization's Global Collaboration on Assistive Technology programme, which aims to promote access to high-quality, affordable assistive products in all countries, especially in low-income contexts. He is also the Knowledge Management Lead for the United Nations Partnership for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD), which seeks to implement the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The UNPRPD works across 40 countries, and Professor MacLachlan has been the Knowledge Management Lead since its inception in 2014.

MacLachlan said: 'This is a wonderful recognition of the work of the ALL Institute at Maynooth University, and of our many global partners. I am delighted to accept it on our collective behalf. It recognises that psychology can meaningfully and practically impact at the level of policy and systems, with government, civil society and the United Nations. In seeking to promote equality of opportunity at a macro level, we are contributing to applying psychology as a population science.' 

You can find a 'One on One' with Professor MacLachlan in this issue.