Joan Cronin
RGN, RM, CQSW, (CORU) Dip. in Systemic Psychotherapy (Distinction), LL.M Children’s Rights and Family Law (First Class Honours).
Joan holds a First Class Honours Masters Degree in Children’s Rights and Family Law from UCC. She is a CORU registered Social Worker, having qualified in 1986. Prior to undertaking social work training, Joan qualified as a registered general nurse and midwife. She qualified in Systemic Psychotherapy in the Clanwilliam Institute and, following accreditation, utilised her Family Therapy training in clinical social work practice.
Joan is co-ordinator of year one of the BSW degree programme and she teaches on three modules, namely:
Introduction to Social Work Theories, Methods and Skills, (SS1202);
Social Justice, Human Rights and Advocacy Approaches to Social Work (SS2228);
Contemporary Issues in Social Work (SS4212).
Joan draws on practice experience in many areas of social work both in Ireland and the UK. She has worked as a Principal Social Worker both in Learning Disability Services and in CAMHS.
In the late 1980s, Joan was one of the first social workers to work in HIV services in Ireland. In this role, she formed strong alliances between the voluntary and statutory services working in HIV. For many years she worked as a Senior Social Worker in St. James’s Hospital in Dublin. There she carried out research on how to improve the identification of and follow up support for women presenting to Accident and Emergency (A&E) following partner violence. This work led to the national roll out in Irish hospitals on training on partner violence for health care professionals working in A&E departments.
Collaborative and inter-disciplinary work are central tenets of Joan’s work. She has led research and implementation of projects on women’s health, with Turkish-speaking women in the east end of London. As Social Work Manager, she was instrumental in developing community-led interdisciplinary mental health intervention services for children in Cork and Kerry.
As well as carrying out research in the areas of partner violence, mental health needs of children in state care and interdisciplinary practice, Joan as a law student, was an active member of the Child Law Clinic in UCC where she examined children’s rights to housing under the European Social Charter.
Joan has been an active board member of Positively Irish Action on Aids (PIAA), Housing and Integrated Living (HAIL) and Cork Aids Alliance. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Kerry based Social Action Group, of which she was a co-founder as a teenager
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