Sinéad McGilloway

Sinéad McGilloway
Born
Derry, Northern Ireland
Alma materQueen’s University Belfast (PhD, 1997)
Known forParenting, family mental health and school interventions
AwardsLionel Hersov Memorial Award (2022, Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, UK); Irish Research Council Research Ally Prize (2022)
Scientific career
FieldsPublic health psychology, community psychology, health services research
WorkplacesMaynooth University, Queen’s University Belfast

Sinéad McGilloway is an Irish public health and community psychologist, and Professor of Family and Community Mental Health at Maynooth University. She is the founder and director of the Centre for Mental Health and Community Research (CMHCR), which is based in Maynooth University's Department of Psychology and affiliated with the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute.[1] Her research focuses on early intervention and prevention in mental health, including parenting, family mental health and child/adolescent wellbeing in school and community settings.

Early life and education

McGilloway was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. She obtained a PhD in Mental Health from Queen’s University Belfast (Faculty of Medicine) in 1997, for research on negative symptoms and speech parameters in schizophrenia.[2] She is a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) and Chartered Scientist (CSci) with the British Psychological Society, and an Associate Fellow of the society.[3]

Career

In her early career, McGilloway worked as a Research Psychologist at Queen’s University Institute of Clinical Science, contributing to, amongst other projects, a multi-year evaluation of desinstitutionalisation, or care in the community, for people discharged from mental health and learning disability hospitals.[4]

She joined Maynooth University in 2000 as a lecturer and co-founding member of staff of the Department of Psychology,[5] and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2004 and to Professor in 2016. In 2008, she established what later became known as the Centre for Mental Health and Community Research, which is a member of the global Mental Health Innovation Network.[6]

Research

McGilloway has led research on early intervention and prevention in mental health, particularly the development and evaluation of interventions and services for children, young people and families. She was Principal Investigator of the national evaluation of the Incredible Years Parent, Teacher and Child programmes in Ireland, funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies.[7] The programme has been adopted internationally, including in Australia by the Victorian Government.[8] Findings from this evaluation have been cited by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare,[9] the European Union Drugs Agency,[10] the Health Service Executive,[11] and the National Educational Psychological Service.[12]

McGilloway's work on parental and family mental health, including perinatal wellbeing, has been reported in national media.[13][14][15] Her studies on wellbeing in schools have also been covered by media including the BBC and the Irish Examiner.[16][17][18]

In 2019, she was appointed to the British Psychological Society Expert Reference Group on Children and Young People’s Mental Health, which advised the UK government on mental health in schools.[19]

She has also contributed to European pooled analyses of parenting interventions, including a pan-European study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.[20] She led the first national review of home visiting services for families with young children in Ireland, commissioned by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality.[21] In 2024, she was a member of the expert group that produced Ireland’s first National Mental Health Research Strategy.[22]

Honours and awards

Selected publications

  • Phillips, B.; O’Toole, C.; McGilloway, S.; Phillips, S. (2025). Trauma-informed practice in Montessori classrooms: An essential guide for students and teachers. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781032571454.
  • Furlong, M.; McGuinness, C.; Mulligan, C.; McGarr, S.; McGilloway, S. (2024). "Family Talk versus usual services in improving child and family psychosocial functioning in families with parental mental illness: a randomised controlled trial and cost analysis". Frontiers in Psychiatry. 15: 1287378. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1287378.
  • Hickey, G.; McGilloway, S. (2023). "The implementation and effectiveness of group-based programmes for mainly vulnerable parent populations". In: Devaney, C.; Crosse, R. (eds). International Perspectives on Parenting Support and Parental Participation in Children and Family Services. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781003334248. doi:10.4324/9781003334248-12.
  • Hickey, G.; McGilloway, S.; Leckey, Y.; Stokes, A.; Bywater, T.; Donnelly, M. (2020). "Putting meat on the bones: Understanding the implementation of a community-based early intervention and prevention programme". Prevention Science. 22(1): 113–129. doi:10.1007/s11121-020-01170-y.
  • Leckey, Y.; Hickey, G.; Hyland, L.; Kelly, P.; Bywater, T.; Comiskey, C.; Lodge, A.; Donnelly, M.; McGilloway, S. (2016). "A mixed methods evaluation of a classroom-based teacher-training intervention". Irish Educational Studies. 35(1): 35–55. doi:10.1080/03323315.2016.1147974.
  • McGilloway, S.; Ni Mhaille, G.; Bywater, T.; Leckey, Y.; Kelly, P.; Furlong, M.; Comiskey, C.; O’Neill, D.; Donnelly, M. (2014). "Reducing child conduct disordered behaviour and improving parent mental health". European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 23(9): 783–794. doi:10.1007/s00787-013-0499-2.
  • Furlong, M.; McGilloway, S.; Bywater, T.; Hutchings, J.; Donnelly, M.; Smith, S.M. (2012). "Behavioural/cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting interventions for children age 3–12 with early onset conduct problems". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2012(2): CD008225. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008225.pub2.

References

  1. ↑ "Centre for Mental Health and Community Research". Maynooth University. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  2. ↑ McGilloway, Sinéad; Cowie, R.; Douglas-Cowie, E. (1995). "Prosodic signs of emotion in speech: preliminary results from a new technique for automatic statistical analysis" (PDF). Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Vol. 1. pp. 251–253. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  3. ↑ "British Psychological Society". Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  4. ↑ Donnelly, M.; McGilloway, S.; Mays, N.; Perry, S. (1994). Opening New Doors: An Evaluation of Community Care for People Discharged from Psychiatric and Mental Handicap Hospitals. London: HMSO. ISBN 0-337-11202-9.
  5. ↑ "Department of Psychology celebrates 20 years". Irish Times. 2020-09-15. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  6. ↑ "Centre for Mental Health and Community Research, Maynooth University". Mental Health Innovation Network. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  7. ↑ "Meet the child behaviour guru who was ahead of the curve". Irish Times. 2020-03-07. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  8. ↑ "Incredible Years". Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, State Government of Victoria. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  9. ↑ "The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Programme". California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  10. ↑ "The Incredible Years (IY) Child Treatment Programme". European Union Drugs Agency. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  11. ↑ "Resource material: Wellbeing in primary schools" (PDF). HSE. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  12. ↑ "Behavioural, social and emotional difficulties". Government of Ireland. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  13. ↑ "My mummy didn't wake up this morning". Irish Times. 2018-09-12. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  14. ↑ "Perinatal mental health needs greater focus, says researcher". Irish Examiner. 2024-02-20. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  15. ↑ "Early parenting programmes increase parental confidence, study finds". Newstalk. 2019-11-18. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  16. ↑ "The children who feel 'invisible' at school". BBC News. 2018-10-25. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  17. ↑ "Calls for more mental health supports in schools". Irish Examiner. 2019-11-05. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  18. ↑ "Low levels of wellbeing among this year's school leavers – survey". Irish Times. 2020-09-28. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  19. ↑ "Government needs to do more to support mental health needs in schools, says BPS". Education Executive. 2019-10-22. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  20. ↑ Gardner, F.; Leijten, P.; McGilloway, S. (2019). "Equity effects of parenting interventions for child conduct problems: a Pan-European individual participant data meta-analysis". The Lancet Psychiatry. 6 (6): 518–527. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30162-2. hdl:10871/36838. PMID 31072801.
  21. ↑ "Home visiting: A national vision for the future". Government of Ireland. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  22. ↑ "National Mental Health Research Strategy". Government of Ireland. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  23. ↑ "ACAMH Awards 2022 Results". ACAMH. 4 November 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  24. ↑ "Maynooth team wins international award for family mental health research". Irish Times. 2022-12-07. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  25. ↑ "Maynooth lecturers receive Irish Research Council Research Ally Award". Irish Times. 2022-12-05. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  26. ↑ "Researcher of the Year Awards 2022". Irish Research Council. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  27. ↑ "Research Achievement Awards 2021". Maynooth University. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  28. ↑ "Aging and Social Change – Awards". Common Ground Research Networks. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  29. ↑ Cochrane, A.; McGilloway, S.; Furlong, M.; Donnelly, M. (2013). "The role and contribution of philanthropy to the lives of older people in Ireland". The International Journal of Aging and Society. 2 (2): 13–23. doi:10.18848/2160-1909/CGP/v02i02/35204.
  30. ↑ "CISM Project Receives The ICISF Award". PHECC. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.