Tracy McDaid
“It was the best thing I ever did,” says Tracy McDaid of her decision to take the MSc in Health and Social Inclusion at DCU.
Tracy is the manager of the Solas Cancer Support Centre, in Waterford which works with people impacted by a cancer diagnosis, as well as family members and those bereaved. It delivers over 9,000 one-to-one sessions each year, making it one of the busiest in the country.
“Unfortunately, in our lifetime one in two people will have had a cancer diagnosis, due in part to an ageing population and a growing population” says Tracy.
It had been 40 years since she had taken her primary degree in Hotel Management and returning to college was not originally on her agenda.
“It had never crossed my mind, and then the organisation was working on our strategic plan and the area of inclusion was front and centre. The content of the course really was the perfect fit for the work that the organisation was going to do.”
She found the structure of the MSc in Health and Social Inclusion very flexible as it was mostly online. In addition, the lectures were recorded so she could catch up if she missed a session due to work commitments.
As well as benefiting from the knowledge and perspectives of her lecturers, Tracy says she learned a lot from other students, many of whom were already actively working with excluded groups.
The course opened her eyes to some of the basic barriers that can prevent a person from engaging with health-related services like Solas.
“I always speak about our services being free and our services having no waiting list. But they're actually not the barriers to people coming through to us. We think that we've broken down those barriers, but they're not the barriers. What if somebody doesn't have a car, if English isn't somebody's first language, or if they're new to Waterford and they don't know about our service?”
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Master’s was researching her thesis, which examined the reasons for the low engagement of men with cancer support services.
The thesis has been shared with the National Network of Community Cancer Support Services and with the National Cancer Control Programme. “My colleagues around the country have been really interested.”
Tracy found that the skills she learned during the research process have been useful in unexpected areas, like funding applications.
“I've made grant applications which were successful, helped by the research element that I was able to bring, referencing studies, referencing papers, referencing statistics.”
Reflecting on her key learnings of the course Tracy says that avoiding tokenism in favour of long-term engagement and working collectively with groups is the best way to improve inclusion.
On a personal level, the course has taught her that “you’re never too old” and the challenge of the Master’s is “doable”.
“It seems at the start that it's a big mountain to climb but the two years go so quickly!”
Tracy McDaid, pictured with her daughters Sara and Laura, is Manager of Solas Cancer Support Centre in Waterford