Social Workers in Adult Mental Health (SWAMH) Special Interest Group

SWAMH aims to support colleagues, advocate for our profession and service users, promote best practice in the interest of service users through CPD events, sharing information and contributing to national mental health policy and developments.

The Committee members are:

• Linda Curran (Chair)
• Kerry Cuskelly (Vice Chair)
• Sinead McKenna (Secretary)
• Elaine Donnelly
• Maria Egan
• Paul Guckian
• James Halpenny
• Jim Lane
• Nisarg Nagwadia

The following is a list of recent activities that SWAMH have engaged with in the past year. If you would like to join the committee during the year and/or have any ideas you would like to discuss, please contact the chair via the IASW.

Activities / Events for 2020:

• SWAMH organised an “online webinar in November line with the “UN 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence”. This event may be rescheduled for 2021.
• Linda Curran and Sinead McKenna facilitated a “talk time” specifically for social workers in adult mental health.

Other highlights from the year:

• SWAMH chair Linda Curran attended mental health reform events
• SWAMH chair Linda Curran contributed to Kelleher O Meara advocacy statement work
• Kerry Cuskelly represented SWAMH on IASW COVID 19 psychosocial response steering group
• Advocacy letters were sent to Tom O’Brien, Programme Manager, Mental Health Unit re. implementation of the vision for change policy and need for social work inclusion on NIMC, (SWAMH chair and IASW chair)
• SWAMH committee member Kerry Cuskelly was successfully appointed to the National Implementation and Monitoring (NIMC) Steering Committee. Kerry was nominated for this role due to the trojan work she completed with alongside Lorraine Kelly (former swamh committee member) earlier this year on SWAMH’s response to Sharing the Vision
• SWAMH put forward a motion “That the IASW endorse the equality for children campaign which seeks equal legal recognition for children of LGBT+ parents” which was passed at the IASW agm.

Publications:

• SWAMH completed work on a housing statement and plan to publish same in 2021
• “Social work with Families in Mental Health Settings: A Position Paper”- SWAMH 2020
• SWAMH drafted a formal response and press release regarding Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone