Gay Graham
Gay Graham, CQSW, (UCD 1975), M. Litt (Trinity College, 1994).
Lecturer
Gay Graham is a lecturer in Professional Practice and Group Work at the School of Social Sciences and Legal Studies, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland. Her area of major interest is residential child care (M.Litt Thesis, 1994, Residential Child Care: An Analysis of Activities and Tasks and their Implications for the Organisational Design of Residential Child Care Units).
Gay has been involved in the development of all courses on offer in Social Care in the Dept. of Social Sciences. She is currently tutor to third year students in BA(Hons) in Social Care. She is a partner with two other European countries in a placement exchange programme for third year students. This programme if funded by Leonardo, a European fund which supports the Europeanisation of training in various sectors.
She is a founder member of EUROARC (European Association for Research in Residential Child Care), 1997. This is a transnational group of researchers and practitioners from four European countries: Ireland, Finland, Scotland and Spain who are committed to improving practice in residential child care. EUROARC succeeded in getting funding from the Youth for Europe Fund for two research projects.
Gay is external examiner at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland and St. Patrick's College, Carlow.
Recent publications:
The Roles of the Residential Care Worker. Journal of the European Association of Training Centres for Socio-Educational Care Work. 1995.
Residential Child Care Research Findings: What do Careworkers do? International Perspectives on Residential Child Care. Gerald Barlow, (Editor), Glasgow: The Centre for Residential Child Care 1996.
Accountability, Where does it Rest in Residential Child Care? The Irish Social Worker, Special edition on Residential Child Care 1996.
The Characteristics of Residential Care Work. Professional Theory for Social Educational Care Work. D. Herweg and W. Diekmann, (eds), Amsterdam: Hogeschool van Amsterdam 1998.
Graham, G., Lynch, D. & Warren, A. (1999). A small impact study of outcomes of assessment for young offenders. Dublin: Centre for Social and Educational Research, DIT.
Graham, G. (2003). The Use of Life Space Intervention in Residential Youth Care, in European Journal of Social Education No 5.
Graham, G. & Megarry, B. (2005). The Social Care Portfolio: an Aid to Integrated Learning and Reflection in Social Care Training. Social Work Education, 24, 7, 769-780
Anderson, S. & Graham, G. (2006). The custodial remand system for juveniles in Ireland: the empirical evidence. Administration, 54 (1), 50-71.
Graham, G. (in press). Attachment strategies and care-giving: social care work intervention with troubled families. Children and youth services review.
Recent conference presentations
Realities and Dreams International Conference on Residential Child Care, Glasgow 1995
Conference for Academics and Practitioners, Turku, Finland 1995 (by invitation).
Residential Managers' Association, Ireland, Annual Conference 1996
Conference of the Association of Training Centres for Socio-Educational Care Work, Ballaria, Italy 1997.
Congress of European Academics and Experts in Care Work, (by invitation), Hogeschool van Amsterdam 1997.
EUROARC International Conference on Residential Child Care, Glasgow June 2001. Making the Milieu work in Residential Care.
National Conference on Best Practice in Residential Child Care, Athlone, Ireland. September 2001. New Developments in Residential Child Care: Ireland and Europe.
Attachment theory in social care practice: the provision of a second chance secure base for youth in institutional care. Paper presented at the 10th ISPCAN European Regional Conference, September 2005.
Training activities
Project co-ordinator, in the production of four short training videos for use with social care workers. These videos are used in training of practitioners and students and aim to develop the observation skills and the reflective capacity of participants. (funded by DIT, Faculty of Applied Arts, Seed Funding, 2000).
Murphy, Z. & Graham. (2002). Life space intervention training video and manula for residential care. Dublin: Dublin Institute of Technology.
Co-ordinator of and academic adviser to a project which produced a training pack (video and manual) on the use of Life-Space Intervention. It is hoped to use this training pack in teaching and training of social care workers and to present it at international conferences, (funded by DIT Seed Funding, Dept. of Health, Dept. of Education, EUROARC, total budget in region of €30,000).
I have substantial involvement in training child care practitioners in High Support units and in the Special School Sector.
I Completed training with Dr. Pat Crittenden, an internationally recognised expert in Attachment Theory, 2001. The training, offered in Manchester, was in the use, analysis and coding of the Adult Attachment Interview. This instrument is of use in research, teaching and clinical practice.
Post-graduate research activity
Supervisor of an M.Phil Student on the Student Research and Development (SRD) Programme. The title of this project is: An Exploration of Policies and Practices in relation to Children under Sixteen who are Remanded in Custody in Ireland. This Masters thesis is due for submission in 2002.
I have been granted funding for a further research project for a graduate student to look at young people aged between 16 and 18 yrs. in Ireland who are remanded in custody and thereby complete the data base on all children in Ireland who are remanded in custody. This will be a resource for researchers which, I hope, will attract increased interest in research in the Juvenile Justice area.
PhD Programme: I am undertaking a major thesis which will clarify and track Core Care Processes, with a view to developing a model for the assessment of Care Processes in residential care units. This model could also be used for the assessment of families with a view to ascertaining which care processes are operational and which need support.
Recent research reports:
Care to Listen (submitted to Brussels, May 1998 and launched in all four countries).
Learn to Listen, An Irish Report of the European study.
It Makes You Think: Report on Safe Caring for Traumatised Children in Residential Care in four European Countries (submitted to Brussels, May 1999).
Member of the Research Team appointed by the Children's Centre, Trinity College, Dublin, to review the residential care centres run by the Mercy Order in Ireland.
Report: Lives in Care (1998).
Collaborative Study between DIT (Seed Funding), and Finglas Children's Centre focusing on Outcomes of Residential Assessment.
Report: Outcomes of Assessment for Children Assessed in St Michael's Assessment Centre during 1987, (launched Nov. 1999).
Contact:
Tel: +353 1 402 4208 Fax.: 402 4263
Email: gay.graham@dit.ie
