School of Health & Wellbeing

Four 2021 graduates of the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) programme presented their research findings in an engaging 5-minute "lightning talk" format at the recent Greater Glasgow and Clyde Psychology Research Group conference.

The projects spanned a range of topics, from wellbeing and quality of life in cardiac and neurological conditions, through memory aids for people with dementia, to implementation of digital interventions for insomnia in first episode psychosis services.

This reflects the variety of work conducted by DClinPsy students as part of the training, under the supervision IHW academic staff and often in collaboration with health board clinicians.

The trainees have kindly agreed to share their presentations more widely via the Institute’s YouTube channel and in this HAWKEYE article. 

Lizzie Hannaford
Mental health and variables associated with psychological distress in people with heart failure during the COVID-19 pandemic
(supervised by Naomi White, Hamish McLeod and John Sharp)

Lizzie Hannaford talk

Demitra Tsivos
Quality of life in individuals with epilepsy and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures
(supervised by Tom McMillan and Iain Campbell)

Demitra Tsivos talk

Katie Ferry
The Scottish Memory Aid Survey
(supervised by Jon Evans and Sally McVicar)

Katie Ferry talk

Fiona Robb
Implementation of digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia in a first episode psychosis service
(supervised by Andrew Gumley, Louise Beattie, and Mairi Spanswick)

Fiona Robb talk

The Doctorate in Clinical Psychology programme is a three-year full-time professional training programme funded by NHS Education for Scotland. Nearly 100 trainees are registered at any one point in time and each trainee conducts a major research project and systematic review alongside a smaller scale piece of service evaluation work to fulfil the research requirements of the doctorate, plus academic teaching and clinical placements. The trainees hence make major contributions to research activity within the institute and collaborating NHS Boards.

We are proud of our trainees’ development and the contributions they make to the institute and the health service during their time with us. We know that they will continue to make important contributions in their subsequent careers. For example, at the 60th anniversary conference we held in 2021, we heard from Glasgow-trained clinical psychologists who had gone on to:

• pioneer research and practice related to psychological therapies for insomnia (Prof Colin Espie, now at the University of Oxford);
• embed quality improvement approaches in psychology services for older people to great effect (Dr Leigh Whitnall, NHS Lanarkshire);
• major leadership roles in the NHS and professional bodies (Dr Gita Bhutani, Director for Psychological Professions Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS);
• achieve great success in public engagement work sharing psychological principles relevant to improving wellbeing (Dr Emma Hepburn, NHS Grampian, and ’The Psychology Mum’ on Instagram and Twitter).

We look forward to finding out about the achievements of our more recent graduates in due course. We are also very grateful to our IHW and NHS colleagues who provide valuable input into our programme.

Jessica Fish
Lecturer (Mental Health and Wellbeing)

Find out more about the DClinPsy 

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First published: 14 March 2018