Making a positive difference

Advocating for women in a mental hospital came at a career cost for Louise Bayliss. But as she tells Jim and Ellen in this episode of Off the Fence with Purpose for every negative there is a positive.

Beginning her career as a mortgage advisor in the banking sector she loved helping people find a home. She retained her link with housing when she moved into an advocacy role with Threshold this time helping tenants in the rental sector.

Staying with. advocacy she then moved to the Irish Advocacy Network which led to a tumultuous period in her life when her public actions in support of women patients in a psychiatric hospital brought her into the media spotlight. She lost her job, was then reinstated after a public outcry only to find that on returning to work it was only temporary and with different responsibilities.

She learned immensely from this setback which had a serious impact on her life. She moved on and became a campaign coordinator with Focus Ireland, supporting people out of homelessness and last year she joined to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul as head of social justice and policy.

Around the time her life was unsettled over her support for the women in the psychiatric hospital she became a founder member and spokesperson for the Single Parents Acting for the Rights of our Kids (SPARK). In 2019 she joined the Council of the National Information Service for Unmarried Parents (TREOIR) and became its chair rin May 2024.

Louise has an MSc in Equality Studies and has been involved in social justice issues throughout her career.

It has been a career of change, some deeply upsetting but she remains upbeat and dedicated to making a positive difference to the lives of those people helped through her work.

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