Whole Family Mental Health and Recovery Conference

Mary Butler TD

Minister for Mental Health and Older People

Mary is a lifelong community activist and member of Fianna Fáil. She has a strong grounding in the retail sector and successfully run the family business, a grocery shop in Portlaw, for 17 years.
In 2014 she contested the Local elections in the Comeragh area and won a seat. Mary then secured a nomination in 2016 to contest the General Election. Mary was elected to the Dáil on the first count, receiving 10,603 votes and topping the poll.
From 2016 to July 2020, Mary was appointed Fianna Fail Spokesperson for Older People and Health Promotion, also chairing the All Party Oireachtas Group on Dementia.
Mary produced several pieces of legislation including Bills on Fair Deal and Mandatory Sentencing for Crimes against Older People.
Following her re-election to the Dáil in February’s General Election, she was appointed to the Special Dáil Committee with responsibly for COVID-19 response.
In July, Mary had the honour of being appointed Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, speaking of her delight and honour to be first female Waterford TD to have been appointed Minister.
Mary is married to Mick, has three children and relies on a great family support network.

Prof Sinead McGilloway

Professor of Family and Community Mental Health and Founder Director of the Centre for Mental Health and Community Research at Maynooth University.

Sinéad McGilloway is Professor of Family and Community Mental Health and Founder Director of the Centre for Mental Health and Community Research at Maynooth University. She has over 25 years’ experience in undertaking engaged policy- and practice-relevant research with a focus on child and adult mental health and well-being, early intervention/prevention and service evaluation. She has won significant national and international research funding to date, is widely published, and has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Maynooth University Faculty of Social Sciences Research Achievement Award 2021 and an Irish Research Council ‘Research Ally’ prize in 2022. Sinéad and her ‘PRIMERA’ team also won the UK Association for Child and
Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) Lionel Hersov Memorial Award (2022) for their research on family-focused practice in mental health services. She is academic representative on the MHER National Family Recovery Advisory Group.

Prof Camilla Lauritzen

Professor of Educational Science, Arctic University of Norway (UiT)

Camilla Lauritzen is a professor of educational science at UiT – Arctic University of Norway. Lauritzen has a PhD in health science from the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiT. Her main area of expertise is knowledge transfer and workforce development to improve services for children and families. Her research portfolio includes studies on children of parents with mental illness or substance abuse, child welfare, supervision, and health-promoting psychosocial work for children and adolescents. Lauritzen is currently head of education at the Regional Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Tromsø, Norway.

Prof David McDaid 

David McDaid is Associate Professorial Research Fellow in Health Policy and Health Economics within the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, Department of Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The primary focus of David‘s work is on using economic arguments to support investment in mental health and wellbeing, as well as self-harm, suicide and mental illness prevention within and beyond the health sector and across the life course. He has published extensively on these topics and has provided advice to a number of governments and ministries of health, as well as international organisations including European Commission, OECD, WHO and UNICEF.

Paula Callaghan

Lived Experience Family member

Paula is a mother of three neurodiverse children and she has 20 years’ lived experience of disability and mental health difficulties. She has a degree in Psychology and is a member of the Psychological Society of Ireland. Paula is also a member of Mental Health Reform’s (MHR) Grassroots Forum which contributes to the formation of their policy positions and she also assists MHR in actively engaging stakeholders in campaigns.

Mary O’Connell Gannon

Mayo Mental Health Family Peer Support Service

Central to Mary’s role is the use of her lived experience to support family members, carers and supporters whose lives are affected by mental health challenges. Mary has qualifications in Peer Support Working in Mental Health and Trauma-Informed Practice in Health and Social Care from Dublin City University and in Youth and Family Support from Galway University. She is a guest lecturer in Family Peer Support Working at DCU School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health. She has previously worked with community-based organisations and NGOs supporting families. She is a member of the MHER National Family Recovery Advisory Group

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