The Social Care Podcast - Sharing Stories

Join Audrey and Baggie for a very special episode, the finalof series 4, where they chat with 82 year old, former resident of Smyly Homes; Eileen McCarthy. Eileen lived in Smyly Homes "The Bird's Nest" from 1949, aged 5 until she left to study nursing in the UK when she was 21 years old, in 1965. She shares her remarkable story, with memories of her time growing up there to her journ...

Join Audrey & Baggie as they chat with Tusla CEO about the role of Social Care Workers in the organisation. Hear about Kates journey from studying speech & language therapy in Trinity College Dublin to CEO of Ireland's child and family agency, how the voices of children & families are listened to and how she manages stress in the role. Recorded in August 2025. Thank you for listeni...

Join Audrey and Baggie for this episode of The Social Care Podcast chatting with Cat Scanlon. Cat has had an interesting journey into the world of social care, beginning with work with First Nations people in Australia. She currently works with Localise as the Youth & Community Coordinator. Find out more about Localise, Irelands national youth volunteering programme here: https://www.localise....

In this Episode, Audrey and Baggie chat with Brian Hogan, former Deputy Director of Oberstown Children Detention Campus. Brian's career in social care spans several decades and he takes us through his work from the early years working with teenagers in Warrenstown House to his later years in Oberstown. Brian has a wonderful ability to share stories from his experiences. Brian now operates a co...

Join Audrey and Baggie as this week they chat with Ciara McShane, the Interim Deputy Chief Inspector for disability services in HIQA. HIQA is the Health Information and Quality Authority, an independent statutory body in Ireland. It was established to drive improvement in health and social care services by developing standards, monitoring and inspecting services, and supporting informed decision-m...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with Neil Maiden about creativity and the use of AI in Social Care. Neil Maiden is Professor of Digital Creativity at the Bayes Business School at City St George’s, University of London and Director of its Institute for Creativity and AI. His research interests include uses of artificial intelligence to augment human creativity. He is and has been a principal an...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with Sinead Johnston, Team Leader in Sankalpa community addiction services who provide services to Finglas and Cabra. Sinead tells of her journey growing up in Dominic Street in Dublin 1, where she developed a passion for advocating for people in addiction and homelessness to working in her current area, dealing with deprivation, social exclusion and substance a...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat about where they're at as they begin series 4 of The Social Care Podcast. Both Audrey and Baggie chat about the challenges they've had in their lives over the last while and about the new series. Audrey and Baggie love to hear what you think of our episodes, please feel free to send us a message on this platform or email us at thesocialcarepodcast@gmail....

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with Leon Ledwidge about her role as Chairperson of Social Care Ireland. Leon takes us on her journey working in social care to where she is now as a trainer. Audrey & Baggie are delighted to collaborate with Social Care Ireland at their Annual Conference to bring you this episode, however, Social Care Ireland do not endorse any products or services mentione...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with Dr. Lorcan Byrne, Sez Morse, Edwina Grant and Shane Casey at the Social Care Ireland Conference. Lorcan is a lecturer of Sociology on the social care programme in TUS and a presenter at the conference, he chats about the role of sociology in social care. Shane, a keynote speaker, is an Irish actor and playwright who chats about resilience and wellbeing. Sez...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they interview a number of young social care workers and students in this episode recorded live at the Social Care Ireland Conference 2024. They chat with the Social Care Ireland Student of The Year Award Winner Aine Hatzer about her great work at Atlantic Technological University and her volunteer work. Next up, Audrey and Baggie chat with a student, Julie Reilly, and tw...

In today's episode, Audrey and Baggie chat with Aubrey McCarthy, a man whose life's work has been dedicated to lifting up the most vulnerable members of society. Aubrey, a businessman from Naas, Co. Kildare, was recently named the Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year for 2024, and it’s easy to see why. His personal journey, from growing up on a farm in Punchestown where he experienced povert...

Trigger Warning: Issues of Racism and discrimination discussed. Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with Dr. Colletta Dalikeni about diversity, inclusion and racism in relation to social care in Ireland. Colletta offers a unique perspective on these issues as someone who has studied them for many years and also as someone with lived experience of the racism that black people and their families fac...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with Dee Hennessy, wellbeing expert and burnout coach about burnout and resilience while working in social care. As a young woman, working in frontline, management, and later as a consultant to the not for profit sector, Dee was the original ‘ teflon coated’  ‘ resilient’,  ‘ ever ready ‘ professional, passionate about her work, and maybe a tad hard on herself a...

Join Audrey and Baggie in this episode as they chat with Des Mooney, a Social Care Worker, SETU Lecturer and former member of the Social Care Workers Registration Board. Des talks about his work in residential services and the work that led him there and his time on the SCWRB. Stay tuned to hear what we can do as a team in social care to stay up to date about whats happening with CORU and registra...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with SETU Social Care Practice Co-ordinator Christina Sieber. We hear about her interesting journey into social care, discuss the importance of career long reflective practice and she shares with us her thoughts on the impact of professional registration for social care workers. Audrey and Baggie love to hear what you think of our episodes, please feel free to s...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they chat with the Company Director of the National Institute of Intellectual Disability Studies about her incredible journey from failing the leaving certificate...twice, working on the roads for Kildare County Council, finding her way into working with persons with intellectual disabilities and eventually setting up her own company. Hear about the National Institute of...

Join hosts Audery Moore and David Bagnall (Baggie) as they chat with Mariaam Bhatti about a new model of care in Ireland. Mariaam is a qualified community development and social policy practitioner with extensive experience of advocacy and community organising. For over a decade she has worked on various national and global campaigns and provided peer support to migrants in low paid work. She has...

This is a special episode dedicated to social care students around the country who are juggling academic workloads and busy jobs. Join Audrey and Baggie this week as they chat with Edel Walsh, a student and exam coach about managing your workload and exam stress. You'll hear lots of tips to help you at this busy time. Working in academia for over 10 years, Edel is passionate about supporting s...

Join Audrey and Baggie in this episode as they chat with Michelle Carter about working with those with intellectual disabilities as they age. Hear about the IDS-TILDA study and Michelle's own research into what social care workers know about this emerging field. Also, hear what we can do to assist those we're working with to have more fulfilling lives of their choosing. To get in touch wit...

Join Audrey and Baggie in this episode of The Social Care Podcast as they chat to Claire O'Sullivan from Tintean Housing Association in Waterford City. Claire shares her incredible story of pain and resilience through adversity which led to her passion for her work with women affected by homelessness. Claire has worked for many years with those experiencing homelessness, men, women and familie...

Join Audrey And Baggie as they discuss the incredible power of play in the lives of children and young adults with Mireia Lopez from Discovery Playtime. From Barcelona originally, Living in Ireland for the last 13 years, Mireia is a qualified primary school teacher with a MA in Educational Psychology, a QQI level 6 in Therapeutic play skills and mum to 2 children. Mireia founded Discovery Playtime...

Join Audrey and Baggie for their final episode of series 2 where they chat with Sindy Offer and Anita Oman about their work on tall ships expeditions with young people. Anita tuned in LIVE from an expedition on the tall ship 'Pelican of London' to chat to us. They talk about their trips and the people they mentor including those with neurodivergence and disabilities. They also discuss the...

Join Audrey and Baggie as they welcome back Dr. Brian Pennie to chat about resilience. We hear some incredible stories of resilience in the face of adversity and get some great tips on building and maintaining our well-being to help us to face the challenges of life and social care work. Dr. Brian Pennie holds a Doctorate of Neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin, is an author, speaker, universi...

Join Audrey and Baggie in this episode when they chat with Tusla's Emily McElarney about Tusla's Meitheal framework. Emily McElarney is a Child and Family Support Network Coordinator for Cabra, Tusla PPFS (Prevention, Partnership & Family Support) Dublin North City. She is also one of many lead practitioners using Meitheal. Listen in to hear all about Meitheal and how it works. Resources: For any...