
Calvin SwordsUniversity College Cork | UCC · School of Applied Social Studies
Calvin Swords
Doctor of Philosophy
Assistant Prof Social Work & Doctor of Philosophy
About
23
Publications
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Introduction
In November 2024, I was appointed as a Lecturer of Social Work in University College Cork. I was a Lecturer of Social Work in Maynooth University from 2021-2024. Prior to this, I undertook my PhD in Trinity College Dublin. My research explored impact of social constructionism on the recovery model and approach in Irish Mental Health Services. It was a qualitative study, focusing on interviews with key stakeholders. I successfully defended this in September 2021.
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Publications
Publications (23)
Purpose
In 2020, the significance of “lived experience” and “service user” accounts of recovery has become central to the delivery of mental health policy and practice. Reflecting on the first known account of personal recovery in the late-20th century provided new hope and encouragement that those living with mental illness could live a fulfilling...
The concept of recovery is well documented within mental health literature. Yet, it remains a contested notion since moving beyond a singular, biomedical focus in the late 20th century. Recovery is currently viewed as a unique, personalised journey for people living with mental illness. This article considers the significance of social construction...
The 21st century has seen an increasing focus on the concept of co-production in seeking to tackle the tokenistic approach often taken by services to recovery in mental health. It originated from the scholarly work of Elinor Ostrom in America in the 1970’s and was further developed through the works of Edgar Cahn. In a bid to create a service that...
Recovery within mental health service delivery is no longer a new consideration in the Western world. However, it is well-documented how challenging its implementation and translation to practice and reality have been in contemporary mental health systems. In conjunction with this, mental health social work is continuously being challenged and deba...
Purpose
The concept of personal recovery is now a key pillar of service delivery. It aims to support individuals to flourish and establish a new identity following an acute episode or diagnosis. This view of recovery is unique to each person on that journey. However, there has been a significant focus on measuring these experiences. This paper aims...
This paper aims to present an in-depth exploration into the phenomenon of male suicide and the social work response to this complex issue. It considers the context of suicide, contributing factors to male suicidal ideation and suicide, and social work interventions for working with suicidal ideation. There is also a focus on examining the current s...
While much research has been undertaken on the recovery-oriented approach towards mental health care in the context of high-income nations such as Ireland, research on its impact in low-income countries remains sparse. The concept of recovery within the mental health sector has been met with some success within high-income nations as the successor...
Encompassing human rights-based approaches within mental health service delivery is essential to supporting the recovery of service users, their family members/carers/supporters. This is being increasingly led by social workers due to their role in responding to psychosocial challenges. This is seen in today’s mental health services through their w...
Introduction
Objects embody meaning – they can embody the social, emotional and psychological experiences which people carry with them as part of their unique, individual journey in this world. Material ethnography provides researchers with a route into those meanings through the study of objects to which people attach meanings related to experienc...
This study focuses on the views of members of the Troy Mental Health
Association Social Club (Troy Social Club) regarding the benefits to them
related to their membership of the club. TheTroy Social Club members who
participated in the study identified a wide range of personal, social and peer
group benefits related to their participation in th...
The world continues to lurch from crisis to crisis. Amidst environmental decline, growing disparities in wealth and social dislocation, a minority of the world’s population ironically prosper while the silent majority struggle to maintain basic standards of economic and social well-being. Social workers are compelled to respond to societal issues s...
Scapegoating is a ubiquitous, yet pernicious, phenomenon in today’s world. It manifests in innumerable ways. Social work, in line with its emancipatory value-base, seeks to engage with various scapegoated groups to challenge the experience. In this article, the authors draw on critical realism and mimetic theory to elucidate the causative mechanism...
In cases where child protection concerns are evident, a central query within inter-professional, safeguarding assessments, centres on the parents’ capacity to change to enhance their child’s lived experience. Social workers, as key professionals co-ordinating such assessments, require analytical tools and models to enable them and others to reach a...
The concept of recovery has been well documented in the Irish state’s policies on mental health. More widely, the notion has been contested and embroiled in a number of definitional debates. Given the formative nature of this unfolding discourse, this research explored the meaning of recovery from the perspectives of one inter-professional team del...
The concept of recovery is well documented in Irish Mental Health discourse and policy in 2018. There have been 3 recent publications from the Advancing Recovery Ireland initiative, which has outlined how services can become more recovery orientated, focusing on several key themes; co-production, recovery education and family recovery. These are ke...
Provided an overview of the need for a study exploring the impact of social constructionism on the recovery model and recovery orientated services in mental health services. The study is seeking to explore the significance of language, discourse and power on how key stakeholders conceptualise and integrate the concept of recovery into their lives....