Emergency Responder Health and Wellbeing, Fatigue Risk Management, Workplace Wellbeing, Mindfulness, Mental Health, Psychiatric Epidemiology

I am interested in public health approaches to mental health, especially how to promote mentally healthy workplaces. I am a psychiatric epidemiologist and have been a registered psychologist earlier in my career. My work programme is addressing an NHS national priority area on how to attract and retain a workforce through improving the way we support staff and learners in the health and social care systems. Current projects are exploring how to promote mental health and reduce suicide risk in ambulance staff and learners, strategies to improve sleep quality and reduce fatigue in health staff, and supporting the wellbeing of care home workers during the pandemic. I lead the Workforce Sustainability Research Group of UEA Health & Social Care Partners and am Deputy Lead for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East of England Mental Health Over the Life Course theme, where I lead the Workforce Wellbeing work stream. I am a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and a member of the Society for Occupational Health.

I have collaborated and supervised across the health and social sciences including medical specialties, public health, nursing, psychology, business, economics, and sociology. I am an experienced PhD supervisor, having worked with 18 PhD students to date. 

For full publication list see https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3132-2745

Recent research projects include:

Optimising digital health tools for sleep and fatigue management in NHS shift workers: potential impact on patient, staff, and organisational outcomes. NIHR ARC East of England 2018-2019 (Principle Investigator)

Promoting staff wellbeing in UK ambulance personnel. HEE 2019-2020 (Co-Investigator and Work Package Lead, PIs Dr Fiona Bell Yorkshire Ambulance Service & Prof Niro Siriwardena University of Lincoln)

Mental health, well-being and support interventions for UK ambulance services staff: an evidence map 1999-2019

Practices and combinations of practices for health and wellbeing at work. ESRC Wellbeing and Productivity 2019-2021 (Co-Investigator, PI Prof Kevin Daniels UEA with RAND Europe)

A discourse analysis of the co-construction of power, and its potential relationship to empathy, in the context of person-centred therapy. UEA 2019-2022 (PhD supervisor)

Making mindfulness work for workplaces. Australian Government/TasNetworks Elite Scholarship 2016-2019 (PhD supervisor)

Mindfulness: effectiveness for safeguarding health professionals. Norfolk and Suffolk Primary and Community Care Research Office Research Bursary 2019 (supervisor)

Cardiometabolic risk trajectories from childhood to mid-life: finding pathways to better health. NHMRC Project Grant 2017-2020 (Co-Investigator, PI Prof Alison Venn University of Tasmania)

Prior to relocating to the UK in 2017 I was a Chief Investigator on competitive grants totalling AU$9.8 million, including a highly competitive Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship plus project support from both the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Australian Research Council. I had been continuously funded by NHMRC for 17 years (2003-2019). I have served on 13 national grant review panels (selection panels) in health and medical research and chaired a state-wide scientific review ethics committee.