President of Ireland on Social Work in the 21st Century

SWHPN Co-chair Grace Christ is in Dublin, Ireland attending the 6th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health. This is the beginning of her conference blogging series.

President Mary McAleese was outstanding in her clear, unambivalent, and powerful support of the value of social work in the 21st century. In short, I’ve never heard a more knowledgeable and supportive opening speech at an academic conference.

With very limited reference to notes (no powerpoints) she highlighted the importance of social work’s willingness to be part of the journey and problem solving with people who find themselves in difficult circumstances, all too common due to the world wide recession.

She acknowledged the fact we often see the effects of financial stress on individual and family health and mental health long before the numbers tell the story or the research is published.

She also spoke of Ireland’s growing diversity (especially before the recession), the need to help people adapt to having multiple cultures/languages within the country, and supporting the lives of the immigrants: both adults and children. She mentioned the social work role in specifically advocating for greater access to quality health care and reducing health disparities.

Finally of course she encouraged us to enjoy our visit and to see Ireland.