Dr Brenda Brady is a qualified social worker and have worked in the areas of criminal justice, homelessness and children’s residential care. Prior to this I worked in an administrative role in Family and Childcare services in North and West Belfast for 14 years in various departments including child protection, fostering and adoption. I have also volunteered in local community development hubs and charitable organisations working with groups of all ages to reduce social isolation and promote wellbeing through engagement with art and creativity. Following a five-year career break I returned to education in 2017 and developed a keen interest in research. I undertook a Master of Research in 2020 then commenced PhD study in 2021 exploring mental health stigma and art-based interventions in Northern Ireland. I have worked extensively with the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival as a member of the organising committee and have used the empowering nature of the arts to help build relationships and enhance communication in practice. I am interested in mixed methods and art-based methodologies and have recently completed a post graduate module in mixed methods methodology at Oxford University. I have been researcher on a European collaborative project interrogating palliative and end of life care in prison and am currently co-authoring a range papers from this research. I also guest lecturer on the research, policy and practice module for the social work degree and have provided co-tutorship for social work and barrister training with the Institute of Legal and Professional studies at the university. For the past four years I have been co-facilitator of the social work pathway programme with the university’s Widening Participation Unit, which aims to raise the aspirations of young people to attend university, increase their awareness of the benefits of higher education and boost their attainment to progress on to higher education. I have co-developed teaching and assessment resources for this and regularly look to ways to make this a positive and engaging experience.

Dr Brenda Brady is a qualified social worker and have worked in the areas of criminal justice, homelessness and children’s residential care. Prior to this I worked in an administrative role in Family and Childcare services in North and West Belfast for 14 years in various departments including child protection, fostering and adoption. I have also volunteered in local community development hubs and charitable organisations working with groups of all ages to reduce social isolation and promote wellbeing through engagement with art and creativity. Following a five-year career break I returned to education in 2017 and developed a keen interest in research. I undertook a Master of Research in 2020 then commenced PhD study in 2021 exploring mental health stigma and art-based interventions in Northern Ireland. I have worked extensively with the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival as a member of the organising committee and have used the empowering nature of the arts to help build relationships and enhance communication in practice. I am interested in mixed methods and art-based methodologies and have recently completed a post graduate module in mixed methods methodology at Oxford University. I have been researcher on a European collaborative project interrogating palliative and end of life care in prison and am currently co-authoring a range papers from this research. I also guest lecturer on the research, policy and practice module for the social work degree and have provided co-tutorship for social work and barrister training with the Institute of Legal and Professional studies at the university. For the past four years I have been co-facilitator of the social work pathway programme with the university’s Widening Participation Unit, which aims to raise the aspirations of young people to attend university, increase their awareness of the benefits of higher education and boost their attainment to progress on to higher education. I have co-developed teaching and assessment resources for this and regularly look to ways to make this a positive and engaging experience.