Mairead Furlong

Biography

Dr Mairead Furlong is a postdoctoral researcher within the ENRICH research programme, a 5-year, HRB-funded evaluation of complex wraparound interventions for vulnerable children and families in Ireland. She holds a BA in Psychology, qualified as a Counselling Psychologist in 2007, and was awarded a PhD in 2013 for a process evaluation of the Incredible Years Parenting Programme within socially disadvantaged areas. Her doctoral fellowship was conducted within the context of the larger Incredible Years Ireland Study, which involved three randomised controlled trial evaluations of the Incredible Years parent, child and teacher training series within community-based services in Ireland. Mairead was awarded funding from the Health Research Board (HRB) from 2008 to 2011 to conduct a Cochrane review that examined the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of parenting programmes for behavioural problems in young children. Since then, she has been involved in conducting several other Cochrane and Campbell systematic reviews in the fields of crime prevention, family mental health, childhood dyscalculia, and independent living for older adults. She is also currently involved, along with Dr Sinead McGilloway, in planning Cochrane reviews in palliative care and school-based mindfulness interventions and a Campbell review in the field of disability. Mairead is an Associate Lecturer with the UK Cochrane Centre, Oxford, and delivers Cochrane training workshops in Ireland and the UK, and is co-founder and Director of PRISM, a research and training hub set up in the Department of Psychology to develop expertise and capacity in conducting systematic reviews in Ireland.​

Research Interest

Child development and mental health, Early intervention and evidence-based practice, Systematic reviews, Mixed methods, Active ageing, Learning difficulties, Counselling and Clinical Psychology, Health and psychosocial inequities.