Public Mental Health, Workplace Wellbeing, Sleep and Fatigue in Workforces, Emergency Responder and Serving Personnel Health and Wellbeing, Mindfulness, 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 a national priority area on how to attract and retain the health and social care workforce through improving the way we support staff and learners in the health and social care systems. Current and recent projects have included: exploring strategies to improve sleep quality and reduce fatigue in health staff; improving mental resilience in Royal Navy submariners; how to promote mental health and reduce suicide risk in ambulance staff; supporting the wellbeing of learners including PhD students and psychological trainees; and identifying ways to support family carers in their interactions with the health and social care system. I am Theme Lead for NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East of England Mental Health Over the Life Course (2022-2026), where I also 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, and regularly review for journals and grant bodies in my field including NIHR. I have served on NIHR funding committees for research in the Work and Health initiative.

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

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. 

Mental health and wellbeing of health and social care workforce

Sleep and fatigue in high-risk workforces

Health of shift-workers

Public mental health

Mental health epidemiology

Workplace health promotion

Mindfulness and positive psychology interventions

Doctoral training

Research methods

Quality improvement

Professionalism, self-care, leadership and creating healthy workplaces

Sleep health and fatigue management for health professionals