Raise the Roof: Cognitive Effects of Homelessness and Implications for Problematic Substance Use Recovery

The Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies will host a virtual talk on July 9, 2025, with Dr. Lorna Crean where she will cover the topic "Raise the Roof: Cognitive Effects of Homelessness and Implications For Problematic Substance use Recovery."

Before pursuing her PhD, Dr. Crean earned a B.S. in Psychology from Dublin City University and spent two years conducting research at the Dublin Simon Community, focusing on the health and recovery trajectories of individuals in a drug stabilization unit. Her dissertation, based on this work, explored cognitive functioning in people experiencing homelessness and its impact on substance use recovery, offering insights for treatment and psychological interventions.

Dr. Lorna Crean's Bio 

Prior to her PhD, Dr. Crean completed a B.S. in Psychology at the Dublin City University, followed by two years of work with the Irish homelessness NGO in the Dublin Simon Community.  At the Dublin Simon Community, she primarily worked as a lead researcher using mixed methodology to investigate their blood-borne virus, and drug stabilization unit service users’ physical and psychological health, as well as their substance use, accommodation and, civic and social trajectories from pre-admission to six months post-discharge.

Dr. Crean's dissertation stemmed from this work, and investigated cognitive functioning in individuals experiencing homelessness and how these examined traits interact with recovery trajectories for people struggling with problematic substance use. This project holds implications for problematic substance use treatment approaches, as well as psychological therapies for people with homelessness experience.