If you ever need reminding why you became a social worker read this…
![Katriona O'Sullivan on graduation day with her mum and dad](/sites/default/files/styles/3_2_s/public/2023-12/Katriona-O%27sullivan.jpg?h=52d3fcb6&itok=qcT3OTkG)
Today, she is an associate professor of psychology at Ireland’s Maynooth University in County Kildare and an award-winning writer who is due to speak at the United Nations in February.
But Dr Katriona O’Sullivan’s life could so easily have gone in a different direction. Born into a home in which both her parents were addicted to heroin and dealing drugs, her early life was blighted by poverty, neglect and trauma.
Katriona speaks of a childhood “completely destroyed by addiction” and the lack of opportunities, shame and stigma that goes with it, graphically outlined in her autobiography Poor.
She says: “When addiction and poverty dominate your home, it robs you and everyone of everything. As a child, it robbed me of my self-esteem and the idea that I was good enough, that I was lovable.”
Katriona recalls how the family were often treated with disdain by some professionals. When her father overdosed, parademics called to the house were rough with him rather than compassionate. She overheard a teacher make a cruel and judgemental remark about the state of her house when she picked up an award in assembly at primary school. Police would regularly stop and search her brothers.
“I just remember feeling why did they hate us?” says Katriona. “Why did my parents’ crimes translate to us kids?”
Amid this, however, the kindness of a few good professionals made all the difference.
One was a primary school teacher, Miss Arkinson. “She always asked me to do jobs even though every time she asked me, I would run out and end up in the playground. But she never stopped asking. She never stopped believing in me. And that seeps in.
“When you're a child like me, and there's darkness all around you, inside you is a black space. I believe it's the role of teachers, social workers and other responsible caring adults to provide light in the chest of lost children. And Miss Arkinson was the first person to place a light inside my chest.”
By the time she was at secondary school, Katriona describes herself as “very, very angry”, involved in crime and misbehaving in class.
Again, it was another professional – her English teacher Mr Pickering - who recognised her potential and need for help.
“One day he shared his own story with me, and he became a human,” said Katriona. “He told me that he'd been a miner and at age 15 he left school and only went to university in his 30s. He gave me books and told me I was great. He asked my opinion. And eventually he asked me why I was angry. And eventually I told him.”
Katriona’s life continued to be a struggle. By the age of 15 she was pregnant and homeless. But the belief and kindness that her teachers had shown remained with her. Looking back today, she believes this has an important message for all professionals.
“Sometimes you will never get to see the impact that you've had on one person's life,” she says. “Sometimes we fail, sometimes we don't respond to you in the way you'd hoped. That doesn't mean that you didn't affect them. Your kindness, your work, your care, your belief in the lives of the people that you work with, irrespective of their response, makes a difference.
“I know your job can be really hard so remember you are changing lives. Every day you show up means something to an insecure kid. What Mr Pickering did for me actually affected me many years later.”
At the age of 20, Katriona moved from Birmingham to Dublin where she says she was lucky to have benefited from community resources and government support, including counselling and housing services available in Ireland in the 2000s. Free tuition fees and bursaries also helped her after enrolling on an access programme at Trinity College Dublin where she graduated top of her class.
Reflecting on her childhood in a talk to social workers at the Scottish Association of Social Work’s annual conference last month, Katriona said: “My parents were not bad people, they were actually sick people and there was no choice in their mental illness."
Katriona’s mother Tilly and father Tony both died prematurely, aged 60 and 57 respectively. But they lived long enough to see their daughter graduate with an honours degree in psychology, the first in her family to go to university.
Now a parent and a grandmother herself, Katriona says she is “happy”. None of it would’ve been possible without the support she received.
“I'm here today because there was a system in place to support me and people told me that I was worth something when my family couldn't do that,” says Katriona.
“I know some of you do not always get to see or experience the impact of your work. But I'm just here to say thank you. Your work matters.”
Dr Katriona O’Sullivan is author of the award-winning autobiographical bestseller Poor