This conference has been organised by the SWAMH (Social Workers in Adult Mental Health) SIG. 

Event fee includes lunch and refreshments.

The link between social determinants and mental health has long been established. As Social Workers in Mental Health we work at the intersection between mental illness, social inequalities and social exclusion.

This conference will explore how Social Workers working in this area can effect change at individual, community and national levels.

Learning Aims

1. To develop an understanding of how social work can influence the inter-relationships between social circumstances, life events, and mental distress.
2. To identify practical strategies that social workers can implement to positively impact the social determinants of mental health.
3. To examine how considering the social determinants of mental health contributes to effective discharge planning.
4. To explore how social workers operating in macro-social work roles can positively influence the social determinants of mental health.

 Conference Programme 

Speaker Biographies

Professor Jerry Tew

Jerry Tew is Emeritus Professor of Mental Health and Social Work at the University of Birmingham in England.  He worked as a specialist mental health social worker before moving into academic teaching and research. He has undertaken research on recovery, personal budgets, strength-based practice and family / network inclusive approaches in mental health – most recently on Peer supported Open Dialogue (the ODDESSI trial) and on Family and Group Conferencing. 

Lorraine Kelly

Lorraine Kelly is a senior mental health social worker with over 20 years’ experience, currently employed as Housing Coordinator for Mental Health in the Galway, Mayo, Roscommon region of Health Service Executive West North West.

Lorraine’s qualifications include a master’s in social work and postgraduate diplomas in social policy and systemic psychotherapy. She is currently undertaking an MSc in Leadership in Healthcare.

Lorraine is the current Chair of the Housing Coordinators in Mental Health Network Group and a member of a Mental Health Commission Working Group on the Revised Standards for Community Mental Health Centres.

Lorraine is project lead of the My Home Project – a Mental Health led collaborative programme with Galway Simon Community and Galway and Roscommon Local Authorities. Initially funded as a Sláintecare integration Fund Pilot in 2019, 1 of 123 projects selected from 477 applications. In 2023 and 2024 The Housing Disability Steering Group Mental Health Subgroup of Galway County Council was shortlisted for two National Housing Awards.

The Housing Agency  briefing paper on the My Home Programme states; ‘The My Home project demonstrates how effective collaborative interagency working results in people with mental health difficulties transitioning to their own tenancies in the community with supports to sustain the tenancy baked in’ (The Housing Agency, Murphy, 2025, P.2)

James Halpenny

James Halpenny is a Principal Social Worker in Adult Mental Health in Galway. James is on the SWAMH committee. James has a particular interest in equity of access to Mental Health Services and co-leads a project in Galway, Mayo, Roscommon that is focused on impacting the Social Determinants of Mental Health, with a particular emphasis currently on the Travelling Community and improving access to Mental Health services.

Colette Tuohy

Colette Tuohy is the Mental Health Services Co-ordinator for Travellers with HSE West North West, covering Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. She brings over sixteen years’ experience in community development delivering outreach, information, advice and advocacy to support positive physical and mental health among marginalised communities, including Travellers, Roma, refugees, asylum seekers and people experiencing mental illness.

A core focus of Colette’s work is to support improved access, consistency and integration of Mental Health Services to meet the needs of Travellers.

This work involves engaging with individuals who may be reluctant to access services, and building strong, trusted relationships with Traveller organisations, community groups, and voluntary and statutory service providers. Her role centres on gathering the voices of service users, family members and carers within the Traveller community, many of whom have experienced suicide bereavement, homelessness, discrimination, poverty, domestic violence, addiction and social isolation.

Caroline Canny

Caroline Canny is the Clinical Nurse Specialist Traveller Health Liaison, based in Social Inclusion working in collaboration with the Adult Mental Health Services in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. The purpose of the role is to provide advice and consultancy to Traveller Health Projects and other healthcare professionals working with Travellers. The overall aim being to provide a Traveller culturally competent service to the community using a recovery orientated philosophy of care- bridging the gaps to Primary Care, Mental Health Services and community/voluntary organisations.  Caroline has a background in Community Development, Health Promotion and Family Planning/Sexual Health. She is currently undertaking a BA in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Breda O’Toole

Breda O’Toole is the author of ‘Unseen’, a deeply moving and courageous book that gives voice to what so often remains hidden — silence, trauma, resilience, and the long road to healing.

Through her lived experience, Breda not only explores the inner landscape of being unseen and suffering domestic violence as a child, but also shines a much-needed light on the profound failures and brokenness of the psychiatric system in Ireland and the impact on those seeking care, understanding, and safety.

Her story highlights the gaps in compassion, listening, and genuine healing within systems meant to support our most vulnerable.

With honesty, sensitivity, and remarkable bravery, Breda invites us into a conversation many avoid, yet so many live with.

Her work offers validation, awareness, and hope — reminding us that healing often begins when silence is finally broken.

 Breda reminds us that even when systems fail us, healing and wholeness are still possible.

Professor Richard Layte

Prof. Richard Layte, Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin.

Richard Layte is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin and a Research Associate of the Economic and Social Institute, Dublin. His research centres on social inequality and stratification and particularly the fundamental processes which influence the distribution of health and well-being in societies and how these are shaped by political economy and social stratification.

His recent research includes a range of papers on the social determents of health over the life course and the manner in which early environment shapes the individuals development and risk of disease in adulthood. This research utilises longitudinal data from cohort and panel studies and a central aim is to tease out the implications that the results have for ‘life course’ theories of human development and disease.

Richard Layte has published widely on all these issues both in Ireland and internationally in both the academic and policy domains. See http://www.tcd.ie/sociology/staff/ for details.

Mary Hurley & Dr Fiachra O Súilleabháin

Fiachra is director of the Master of Social Work (MSW/ PGDSW) in UCC. Both Fiachra and Mary lecture on the MSW and have a passion for the environment and its connection to Social Work. This interest led to them to develop a new inter-disciplinary module for MSW and Youth and Community Work programmes in UCC called Social Work Approaches Sustainability, Environmental and Social Justice Issues in Professional Practice.

Mary and Fiachra O Suilleabhain with colleague Catherine Forde recently contributed a chapter Teaching and Learning Eco Social Work, Concepts, Methods and Practice published by Springer. Their Chapter is called Eco-activism and Greening the Social Professions Curriculum: Teaching and Learning Ecosocial Work in an Irish University.

As an activist Mary is keen to build relationships with social workers and others who share her concerns about climate emergency. She supports activities to raise awareness of the interconnectedness between people and all other life on the planet in her professional and personal life. She work with colleagues in the IASW and IFSW (Europe) to raise awareness of the climate emergency and how Social Work can respond.

Sylvia Cahill

Sylvia Cahill is the Psychosocial Lead in HSE Dublin North City & West; and HSE Dublin North County. Since qualifying as a Social Worker from UCD, she has over 22 years’ experience working with adults, young people, children and families in various settings, including 12 years with children and families, 5 years in adult mental health services and more recently just over 2 years in the children and adolescent mental health services.

Since 2022 Sylvia hold the post of Psychosocial Lead in HSE Dublin North City & West; and HSE Dublin North County (formally CHO9), which centres around the provision of psychosocial support, not just in the aftermath of critical incidents and major emergencies, but also to our most marginalised communities, and to those practitioners who support our most marginalised.

Sylvia has a particular interest in the area of Trauma and in the area of Attachment, specifically the Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment. Having recently completing the MSc Attachment Theory, Research and Practice in the University of Roehampton, London, she is now completing a Maters in Trauma in UCC. She is a MBT (Mentalisation Based Therapy) practitioner, a MoTC (Meaning of the Child Interview) assessor and reliable coder, and holds reliability as a CAPA (Child Attachment and Play Assessment) coder, as well as being trained in NET (Narrative Exposer Therapy), ABFT (Attachment Based Family Therapy) and The Lighthouse Model. Sylvia believes that Social Work holds a unique and instrumental position to consider a holistic and inclusive model of practice, that moves beyond labels and diagnosis, that sees the person, their past and current context and their support systems, which is essential to supporting and promoting long lasting growth and recovery. 

Kerry Cuskelly

Kerry Cuskelly is the CEO of Exchange House Ireland National Travellers Service, a national organisation of Travellers and non-Travellers and leading provider of frontline and support services across the lifespan to some of the most marginalised Travellers in Ireland since 1980. Kerry is a registered social worker with experience in roles covering practice, policy, research, advocacy, change management, operations, strategy and service delivery. She is committed to partnership approaches and systems change through centring the voice of lived experience. Kerry is an Adjunct Assistant Professor with Maynooth University. She is a published author in the areas of mental health, family recovery, co-production, technology and social action, human rights and policy practice.