Health Psychology Research Group

Purva Abhyankar: informed and shared decision making about healthcare options, self-management and behaviour change in long-term conditions, health-services research.

Julia Allan: cognitive control of health behaviours, cognitive bias in health relevant decision making, health professional stress and fatigue.

Line Caes: childhood pain experience, parent-child interactions, coping with childhood chronic illnesses.

Elaine Cameron: I am interested in medication behaviours such as treatment adherence and prescribing in long-term conditions, antibiotic stewardship, and global health. I have expertise in evaluating intervention fidelity, and mixed methods and qualitative research.

Rachel Crockett: population level interventions to change health behaviours focussing on physical activity and healthy eating, mobility and healthy ageing, global health and food security.

Sinéad Currie: the application of health psychology into maternity care.

Hannah Durand: shared- and self-management of chronic illness across the lifespan, particularly treatment adherence and pain management.

Wendy Maltinsky: behavioural medicine and behavioural change with individuals and clinicians and as applied to areas of global health and digital health.

Lesley McGregor: cancer screening, health communication and informed health-related decision making.

Caroline McHutchison: Cognitive and behavioural symptoms in motor neuron disease and frontotemporal dementia: when these symptoms first begin, how they evolve over time, and who's most at risk of developing them.

Ronan O’Carroll: behavioural medicine, organ transplantation, cancer screening, medication adherence.

Gozde Ozakinci: I study community-based and citizen-led approaches to physical activity and health promotion. Another line of work I focus on is cancer survivorship and specifically fears of cancer recurrence.

Pamela Rackow: My research is concerned about individuals and their community and how their well-being and health can be improved by applying state of the art intervention strategies.

Vivien Swanson: Psychological wellbeing and models of behaviour change in relation to promoting health behaviours and coping with long-term conditions.

Claire Jouanny: My research aims to inform an intervention to raise awareness of early prolapse symptoms and prompt women to seek help sooner. 

Georgia Laverick: My PhD is looking at how patients with Crohn's Disease understand the information they can access, and how they use the available information to make decisions about their treatment.

Amaeze Madukah: I am interested in culturally competent health behaviour change interventions.

Emma Scott-Smith: Using visual methodologies to understand identity and communication in persons with long-term chronic pain conditions.

Rebecca Skinner: I am interested in participant centred research especially in chronic conditions.

Hannah Welshman: I am interested in how women and their partners plan their pregnancies and how to optimise health before conception.

Kirsty McMenamin

Placement: My placement is with Scottish Autism which is a third sector organisation providing a wide range of services for autistic children and adults in Scotland. I am currently looking at the stressors of current working practices in autistic employees and how this is affecting health and well-being. I also work for NHS Ayrshire & Arran as a tobacco prevention and cessation officer within Public Health.

Main area of research: I am interested in behaviour change to improve health outcomes in adults with overweight and obesity, increasing smoking cessation rates in people with mental health issues, and physical activity to reduce stress and improve well-being.

Cherrie Hung

Placement: Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, working in the Health Promotion Team as a Tobacco Dependency Adviser.

Main area of research: I am interested in the improvement of health literacy in the general public to aid health promotion. Given my recent and current placements, my research focuses on people living with dementia and smoking cessation.

Kayleigh Maxwell

Placement: TestCard, a healthcare company specialising in at-home urine testing solutions; and Live UTI Free, a patient advocacy organisation.

Main area of research: Understanding the patient experience of living with recurrent or chronic UTI, and the barriers to effective healthcare for this patient population.

Danica Cassar

Placement: Willingness Team in Malta – is a interdisciplinary clinic focusing on physical and mental health. I form part of the health clinic in which I observe and contribute to team meetings, deliver training in health psychology and also carry out interventions with clients as part of my placement.

Main area of research: Danica is interested in working with patients with long term conditions such as fibromyalgia and cancer. She is also interested in Sleep Hygiene and sleep related habit as well as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Catherine White

Placement: I am a first-year student on the Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology and my placement is with NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Main area of research: I am interested in self-management and behaviour change in relation to long-term conditions. I am also interested in cancer screening and reducing health inequalities.

Mohammud Ibrahim Subdurally

Placement: I currently hold a Senior Officer position within the Behavioural Science team in Public Health at Birmingham City Council, which is also my Placement for the programme. My primary role involves guiding and assisting colleagues in integrating Behavioural Science principles into their workstreams to promote public health initiatives.

Main area of research: I am deeply committed to leveraging Behavioural Science to address health inequalities and enhance the well-being of vulnerable populations. While my primary focus lies in Sexual Health and Substance Misuse among sexual and ethnic minority groups, I have gained experience in diverse areas such as Early Years & Maternal Health, Smoking Cessation, and Health Protection through my work.

Nadia Rahim

Placement: My current placement is with NHS Fife as a smoking cessation advisor.

Main area of research: My interests include smoking cessation during pregnancy, physical activity, autism, eating behaviours and health inequalities amongst minority groups.

Katie Heslop

Placement: Action in Mind, which is a Stirling based mental health charity. During this placement I supported those with a diagnosed mental health illness to improve aspects of their physical health.

Main research area: I conducted research in the area of substance use.

Sarah Keith

Placement: South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and I worked within the Medical Psychology team across a range of services including Long COVID, spinal cord injuries, and cancer.

Main area of research: My research was focused on Long COVID.

Stephan Dombrowski: behaviour change interventions, behavioural and weight loss maintenance, health care service use for acute conditions

Lindsay Wilson: Neuropsychology, functional outcome, and quality of life after brain injury