Staff

Declan Coogan

Lecturer

MA in Social Work 2nd Year Co-ordinator; Tutor

BA (Theology) St. Patrick’s College, Carlow
MSW/DipSW Queen’s University Belfast/Central Council for Social Work Education and Training in Social Work
MSc (Systemic Psychotherapy) University College Dublin and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH)
PG Dip. (Systemic Psychotherapy) MMUH

Office: 223 Aras Moyola
Telephone: 353 (0)91 495373
Email: declanp.coogannuigalway.ie

Member of the Children, Youth and Families Research Cluster (the Child and Family Research Centre)

Profile

Declan qualified as a social worker in 1996, working as a Community Care Social Worker with Child Protection and Family Welfare teams. He later joined the multi-disciplinary Mater Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Dublin in 2000. While part of the MATER CAMHS team, he was also seconded one day a week to the Northside Inter-Agency Project (NIAP), a multi-disciplinary team with the aims of preventing sexual abuse and working with young people who have sexually abused and their families. He has been a practice teacher for social work students on child protection/ family welfare and on CAMHS placements. He has worked closely with colleagues, families and young people in group work programmes. He has also collaborated with colleagues on undergraduate and post graduate training programmes for courses designed for social workers, social care workers, nurses, doctors and other practitioners.

Since joining NUI Galway in 2009, he continues to develop interests in integrating research, theory and practice. He has developed and continues to facilitate 2 day evidence and practice based training programme on Non Violent Resistance for Child to Parent Violence for practitioners.

He is a member of the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) and a committee member of the IASW special interest group of Social Workers in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Declan is also a Systemic / Family Therapist registered with the Family Therapy Association of Ireland (FTAI).

Teaching

Masters of Arts in Social Work programme:

Declan co-ordinates and is involved in teaching in the following modules: Social Work Practice 1; Contemporary Social Issues; Crime Reduction & Probation Work; Research Dissertation; Social Work Practice 2.

Continuing Professional Education/ Development:

Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work Practice Teaching, Supervision and Management.

Undergraduate courses:

Revisiting Violence: Aggression and Abuse in Contemporary Irish Family and Institutional Life.

Social Issues and Policy Responses (Young People and Sexual Behaviour Problems: Contexts and Correlates).

Research Interests

Research interests include:

• Child to Parent Violence Parent (also known as parent abuse, where individuals under the age of 18 years old use violence at home)
• Violence within the family
• Policy and practice in the area of child and adolescent mental health
• The effective engagement of individuals who deny that he/she has any role in changing the circumstances that led to a referral to services (sometimes called resistant clients or clients in denial)
• Policy and practice in relation to young people who have sexually abused and their families.

Selected Publications

Coogan, D (2012) Marking the boundaries – when troublesome becomes abuse and children cross a line in family violence. Feedback: The Journal of the Family Therapy Association of Ireland. July 2012: 74-87.

Practice experience and conversations with other psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists suggest that the aggressive behaviour of children and adolescents towards their parents is an increasing concern in direct work with families. It seems that although the initial referral for assessment and intervention may be related to concerns about ADHD, depression or out of control behaviours, more parents are beginning to talk about their experiences of being the target of their child’s physical and emotional aggression and violence in their homes. In this article I would like to broaden our understandings of family violence to include the threat of and the use of violence by children and adolescents against their parents. One way of making a clear distinction between abusive and violent behaviour and what could be termed as “normal” conflict between parents and their children at different developmental stages will be suggested. Using an outline case example, the Non Violent Resistance Programme (Omer 2004; Weinblatt & Omer 2008) will be suggested as one response to the problem of child to parent violence. Some of the challenges in psychotherapeutic practice for the detection and development of effective responses to child to parent violence will be explored.

Coogan, D (2011) Child to Parent Violence – Challenging Perspectives on Family Violence. Child Care in Practice Vol.17, No. 4: 347-358.

Coogan, D (2009) Protection Responsibilities and Hope: Dilemmas when working with families when children assault their parents/carers. The Irish Social Worker Journal. Autumn 2009: 7-11.

Coogan, D (2005) Responding to Domestic Abuse – Stepping Outside the Therapist’s Zones of Confidence and Competence. Feedback: the Journal of the Family Therapy Association of Ireland. Vol. 10. No. 3: 8-14.

Coogan, D. & Sharry, J. (2004) Working with Child Abuse and Neglect. In Sharry, J (Ed.) Counselling Children, Adolescents and Families. London: Sage, pp 158-170.

Coogan, D (2002) Side Stepping the Seductive - How to Look for the Newness that Makes a Difference. Eisteach - Journal of Counselling and Therapy. Spring 2002 issue.

Coogan, D & Ryan, M (2001) Taking the Next Step - Towards a Proposal for Working with Men Who are Violent in their Intimate Relationships. Irish Social Worker Journal. Vol. 19, No. 2-3.

Supervision of Research

MA in Social Work Dissertations

2012

Clive Greally. Does the touch survey facilitate disclosure of child sexual abuse? An explanatory study.

Roisin Grimes. “Drawing lines in the sand”. Determining problematic but not abusive childhood sexual behaviours – towards a practice assessment tool for practitioners.

Denise O’Shea. Does it make a difference? Human rights, juvenile sex offenders and treatment/ intervention.

2011

Michelle Haverty. An Exploratory Study of the Resettlement of Sex Offenders from Prison to the Community.

Maire Hoban. “The Search for Status, He Kept Up My Hope” – An Exploration of the Relevance of Hope in Recovery in Adult Mental Health Social Work Practice.

David O’Reilly. Is there Power in Empowerment? A Critique of the Empowerment in Adult Mental Health Services in the Republic of Ireland.

Elaine Quinn. “We Make the Path by Walking” – Female Perpetrated Child Sexual Abuse in Ireland: Professionals’ Perspective.

2010

Laura Casserly. Communication Matters with Children in Social Work Practice: Knowing, Being and Doing.

Jonathan O’Rourke. Practitioners Perceptions of Working with Young People Presenting with Problematic Sexual Behaviour and the Role of Restorative Justice.

MA in Family Support Studies

2011

Mary Barry. Working Towards an Inclusive Practice in a Refuge Service – Bringing Fathers and Children Together.

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