Posted 01 July 2010
President McAleese: Social work a ‘noble profession’ that can change lives
Social workers help to reconstruct lives that have been skewed by any one of the many events, accidents or circumstances which can cast the shadow of illness or mental illness over a life, the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese said.
In an official opening address at the 6th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health at University College Dublin, President McAleese said social workers are an ‘important part of our collective, civic response systems through which we take shared responsibility for the suffering of our fellow citizens and try to bring the best support and problem-solving skills we can to bear on their lives’.
“Your work often takes you to the margins of society where positivity is not easy to find, where healthy interactions and relationships, even with the best will in the world, are inhibited by all sorts of embedded attitudes, experiences, systems and structures,” said President McAleese.
“You are very important companions and sometimes navigators on the journey towards individual recovery and personal fulfilment and our communal journey towards being sensitive, caring societies which outreach effectively to our vulnerable citizens.”
“I hope you will leave [this conference] re-energised by new ideas and with renewed confidence in this noble profession to which you have committed your lives and on which the wellbeing of so many lives depends,” added President McAleese.
The 6th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health ran from 28 June to 02 July 2010. The conference was hosted by the UCD School of Applied Social Science, University College Dublin, and supported by the Irish Association of Social Workers.
Pictured at the conference (l-r): Dr Lindsey Napier, University of Sydney; Dr Valerie Richardson, recently retired from the UCD School of Applied Social Science; Professor Suzanne Quin, UCD School of Applied Social Science; Professor Bairbre Redmond, Deputy Registrar for Teaching and Learning, UCD; President of Ireland, Mary McAleese; Dr Mary Allen UCD School of Applied Social Science; Ms Vicki Somers, Irish Association of Social Workers; and Ms Eilis Walsh, Director, National Social Work Qualifications Board.
Keynote speakers at the conference included: Professor Robert Bland AM, the Queensland health Chair of Social Work at the University of Queensland; Professor Paul Bywaters, Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Coventry University and Honorary Professor at the University of Warwick, UK; and Professor Jill Manthorpe, Director of the Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
