What do you find most rewarding and most challenging about the work you do?<\/p>\n
Brendan: I\u2019m a psychiatrist, a medical doctor who treats people with mental illness<\/a>. From a clinical perspective, I see people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression. These are severe conditions which can be very distressing and confusing for people who have them and for their families. That\u2019s what is challenging. What\u2019s rewarding is that some of the treatments for schizophrenia are very helpful when we can deliver them but it can be difficult to deliver some of the treatments to people with schizophrenia, which often involves a degree of disorganisation in the person\u2019s life. <\/p>\n Antoinette: My job is collaborating with leaders in the legal profession to develop a healthy work<\/a> culture. Part of that involves training lawyers and judges to be high-impact professionals using professional wellbeing<\/a> tools. These are high-achieving people who are not in any kind of acute clinical need but who may, over their lives, dip in and out of having greater need of services. They are a fascinating cohort of people to work with. It\u2019s really rewarding to be able to integrate my training in psychoanalysis, primarily, into people\u2019s professional development.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not about repairing people who burn out or break down. The context I work in is with people who will expect to have challenges to their minds and to who they are in the world. <\/p>\n Moira: I\u2019m a principal child and educational psychologist. Myself and my colleague Davida Hartman set up The Children\u2019s Clinic, Ireland\u2019s first neurodiversity affirmative clinic, about 10 years ago. We support babies, children and young adults in a neuro-affirmative way, identifying mostly autism, but other neurodivergences as well. Hopefully, over time, you see them thrive and be their true, authentic selves. <\/p>\n The hardest part of the work is when you\u2019re working as a psychologist with children and young people who experience high levels of distress and families who are highly distressed. It\u2019s often not having their needs identified in a timely manner. The other challenge is that it can be difficult to advocate for people within systems that are overstretched. And as someone who has worked in the public service for a very long time, I see that from both sides. <\/p>\n How has your profession changed in recent years, and what forces have driven those changes?<\/p>\n Moira: There has been a rise in neurodiversity awareness. There\u2019s been a shift from fixing to understanding, from apologising to embracing. This is now a human rights movement, an identity-affirming movement. There are no two autistic people in the whole world who are alike; we all have our own individual needs, and that has been really helpful for people. In psychology there has been a massive increase in demand for psychological services, particularly in child adolescent psychology. <\/p>\n Children are presenting with needs that appear to be more complex. I wouldn\u2019t go as far to say there\u2019s an epidemic. We\u2019re just getting much better at identifying [conditions]. I\u2019d still say we\u2019re under-identifying, or under-diagnosing. I also think there\u2019s been a societal shift since Covid in that the language of psychology is less stigmatising and has become more mainstream. And this has been a really good thing. It opens up the conversation. Irish people are very prone to saying, \u201csure, everything is grand\u201d. But of course a lot of the time things aren\u2019t grand. As a society we have become more accustomed to talking about this in a psychological sense.<\/p>\n Brendan: In my view, the other big change in the past couple of decades is that since the year 2000 the rate of suicide in Ireland has fallen by about 30 per cent. And this is consistent with global trends. Even one suicide is one too many, but what it does tell us is that positive change is possible and happening. If the rate of suicide can go down by a third, you know what, it can go down by another third. So what this says to me is that we need to devote more resources, not fewer, to suicide prevention. <\/p>\n I need to stress that statistics and numbers are no consolation to a person bereaved by suicide, which is always an individual tragedy. But I think if you ask about my profession in the past few years, there is a part of me as a researcher that must stand back and say, look, positive change is possible and it\u2019s happening. This doesn\u2019t mean the job is done. <\/p>\n The increased awareness of mental health and mental wellbeing is a huge opportunity to try and prevent the emergence of more serious conditions or more distressing states of mind<\/p>\n \u2014 \u00a0Prof Brendan Kelly<\/p>\n Antoinette: About five years ago, the International Bar Association, the largest network of legal professionals in the world, set up a professional wellbeing commission, so that is a huge and welcome change in my sector. We\u2019ve since had the first global mental health study, which was published a couple of years ago, and it actually put figures on the rates of burnout. That\u2019s one change, ready access to data. <\/p>\n And this might be controversial but another good development has been the role social media<\/a> has played in giving voice to people\u2019s internal world. Some of it is indulgent and annoying, but I think it is also very therapeutic, and it\u2019s developmental, and we\u2019re exploring these issues in public in a way we\u2019ve never seen before. The idea that you would speak into your phone about the state of your mental health on a Monday morning is amazing. In the past, you couldn\u2019t even say these things in confession. So I think that\u2019s been a fantastic change. <\/p>\n What opportunities and risks do you see ahead for your field over the next decade in Ireland?<\/p>\n Moira: A good development is that psychologists will finally get what they call statutory registration with Coru, [Ireland\u2019s multi-profession health regulator]. At the moment, in theory, anybody can call themselves a psychologist, so this has been a long time coming. It hasn\u2019t been an easy road but it\u2019s certainly very welcome and is a great opportunity to ensure public safety is front and centre of everything we do. <\/p>\n I\u2019m also hopeful that there will be greater diversity and specialisation in psychology; this certainly seems to be the way that we\u2019re going. In addition to this, there\u2019s growing attention for the importance of psychology at policy-making level. In terms of risks, I\u2019d worry about \u201cneurodiversity lite\u201d, where it\u2019s treated almost as a buzzword but doesn\u2019t result in any meaningful change for people who are neurodivergent. We are talking a lot about autism and disability and yet the ableist culture we live in perseveres so that is something to flag.<\/p>\n![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DMG4JKKRIJA5ZKWFSTBWX4BBE4.JPG\")
Dr Moira Kennedy: Irish people are very prone to saying, ‘sure, everything is grand’. But a lot of the time things aren\u2019t grand. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n![\"Prof](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/BP2FQJHWBVBS7JS6VWV4INU5XA.JPG\")
Prof Brendan Kelly: ‘Ireland\u2019s rate of prescription of psychiatric medications is actually quite low internationally.’ Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n
![\"Antoinette](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/JSRMZYVMCNBVPJA4S6PHSZ3URE.jpg\")
Antoinette Moriarty: ‘We often can fall in love with the problems, and I\u2019d like us to fall in love with the solutions.’ Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n