Dr. Damien Brennan

Dr Brennan is Associate Professor at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin where his teaching and research are focused on the Sociology of Health and Illness. Dr Brennan has developed a significant agenda of research which examines 'Contexts of Care Provision in Ireland'. Dr Brennan has held senior leadership, managerial and administrative positions at College, Faculty and School level; including two (three year) terms as Elected Member to University Council; Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning; Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning; Member of School Executive; and Subject Leader for Sociology. He has made a major contribution to understanding Ireland's problematic institutional past, while also examining the potential for care provision within contemporary Irish communities and families, with particular reference to Intellectual Disability and Mental Illness. This research agenda has attracted funding from bodies such as the Irish Research Council, the National Disability Authority, the Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Department of Health and Children. Dr Brennan held roles of PI, Co-Researcher and project manager to these funded research initiatives, which has resulted in quality outputs in academic journals, book chapters and a sole authored book. Dr Brennan also acts as a 'public intellectual', disseminating research through TV Documentaries, National Radio, Print Media, Key Note Addresses and Public Lectures. His work is an established point of reference which both informs and shapes national discourse concerning 'Contexts of Care Provision in Ireland'.

  Aetiology of mental illness   Development studies   Development, prevention and treatment of mental disease or disorder   Gender issues, gender studies   Mental health nursing   Mental health promotion   Patterns of health   Psychiatry   Social Theory   Sociological influences on health   Sociology of illness and health

My research agenda has addressed some uncomfortable aspects of Ireland's past use of institutional care settings, while also examining the capacity for care provision within contemporary Irish society. This is a substantive undertaking; for example I have mapped an institutional social process spanning some two-hundred years, illustrating that Ireland had the highest level of mental hospital residency internationally. This was prolonged, detailed, hard-won, and at times 'unpopular' research, culminating in my sole authored book Irish Insanity 1800-2000 (2014). Acting on my research knowledge, I have intervened as a public intellectual by placing this research firmly within the public and political domains. This research agenda has opened up new academic challenges within the 'post-institutional landscape' in Ireland. Specifically, there are new and urgent challenges regarding the capacity of contemporary Irish society to provide care within the home/domestic setting, in fields such as mental health, intellectual disability and ageing. Tangible examples of my growing impact in defining and progressing this field is my research report Understanding Family Strategies that enable Long Term and Sustainable Home Environments for Older People with Intellectual Disability (2016), funded by the National Disability Authority, and my subsequent (2018) IRC funded research A participatory action research study to enhance long term care planning for older people with an Intellectual Disability in Ireland and their families. Building on this research agenda new research objectives are formulated, for example my current leadership of an IRC funded research collaboration with the Family Careers Ireland which is examining the Social Contract for Care Provision in Ireland (2020-2021)