09/12/2025
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences hosted the Erasmus Mundus Advanced Social Work in Health (EMASWH) consortium in Dublin last month, organised in association with ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon, the University of Valencia, and Robert Gordon University.
As part of the visit, the consortium held a symposium titled Building on the Past to Educate for the Future: Celebrating the Contributions of Social Workers in Healthcare Services.
The hybrid symposium opened with a keynote address from Amanda Casey, HSE Chief Social Worker, and featured speakers from across the policy, practice and academic sectors, including Nicola Byrne (Shine), Claire O’Cleary (CORU), Geraldine Farren (HSE), Andrea Ward (Cappagh Hospital and IASW), Grainne Murtagh (RCSI), Emma Daly (RCSI), Kim Murray (Crumlin Hospital), Ann Mara (MECPATHS), Professor Jorge Ferreira (ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon) and Éidín Ní Shé (RCSI).
The speakers highlighted the various levels within health services that social workers currently occupy, ranging from their work with individuals and families to policy and service leadership roles, where they collaborate with other disciplines to shape the future of health services in Ireland.
The international consortium, now titled LEAD_well, aims to design education and training solutions for social workers in healthcare to support their work across all of these levels.