Dr Katherine Brown C.Psychol FHEA Coventry University

Overview Introduce myself and my role Briefly introduce Health Psychology My work in more depth Sexual health intervention design (and all the work that comes before it!) What jobs are out there? Health Psychology and the NHS Research and academic posts Beyond? How do you train? How much can you earn?

My role(s) Dr Katherine Brown C.Psychol Chartered Health Psychologist Senior Lecturer in Psychology Course director for MSc Health Psychology Based in Psychology Department Affiliated with Applied Research Centre in Health & Lifestyle Interventions (ARC-HLI) Head of Study of Adolescent Sexual Health (SASH) Research group Honorary secretary, British Psychological Society - Division of Health Psychology (BPS – DHP)

What is Health Psychology? Broad discipline Relatively new Social Psychology practice and application of psychological methods to the study of human (thinking and) behaviour relevant to health, illness and health care NHS (2007)

Three major areas Health behaviour change Biological, psychological and social determinants of health related behaviour and outcomes Health care delivery and healthcare environments Effective communication, understanding the impact of type of healthcare experience on physical health outcomes Understanding illness experience Gaining information about illness experience, quality of life and so on particularly in relation to chronic disease and painful conditions – can help inform better healthcare

Overlaps with… Social Psychology Clinical Psychology Occupational Psychology Forensic Psychology Environmental Psychology Neuropsychology Cognitive Psychology

Health psychology and sexual health

Increasing STI rates

All of this despite…

My work in more depth Behaviour change approach Applied to sexual health intervention design Bayer work on emergency contraception What shall we tell the children? – Coventry and Warwickshire PCTs VoID Stage 1 – behavioural change not part of current practice Stage 2 – Warwickshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) Er62lySQ_3d_3d Er62lySQ_3d_3d Europe and Africa plans

What jobs are out there? Health Psychology and the NHS Post in NHS are often competency based Health Psychologists often not specifically asked for in job advertisement bin/vacdetails.cgi?selection= bin/vacdetails.cgi?selection=

NHS jobs in… Research jobs Hospital R & D Joint posts with academia Clinical Governance Audit Service improvement NICE guidance Management Strategy – DoH/Regional Authority

And in…. Behaviour Change Smoking/drugs Weight management Screening Chronic disease care Palliative Care Public Health

Research and academic posts Exist in all areas of research Universities Research centres And in NHS in some cases psychology.org.uk/advertisements/HealthPsychologyP osts.php psychology.org.uk/advertisements/HealthPsychologyP osts.php

And beyond? New, exciting and developing discipline Requires intelligent, motivated individuals to be involved and to help move things forward These people need to understand research, theory and evidence AND be able to translate into evidence-based practice VSO & Papua New Guinea Emergence of private companies delivering this kind of expertise PMA – Public Management Associates. Health Behaviour Change Ltd -

How do you train? BPS accredited degree providing GBR 2:1 or above BPS accredited MSc Health Psychology Stage 1 qualification towards chartered status Stage 2 qualification Through supervised portfolio route Or accredited doctoral programme Staffordshire, UCL, University of Surrey & Institute of Psychiatry all offer doctorates

How much can you earn? Research posts start at around £ Lectureships - £ Pay can go up to £46-50 K + NHS has different pay scales but not dissimilar Opportunities for extra income (consultancy, books, external examining) Perks (e.g. foreign travel)

More information Courses: Contact courses direct for more information about content, entry requirements, application procedure etc…. Courses courses_home.cfm courses_home.cfm SMG: the Students Members Group of the BPS. A networking group for undergraduates in psychology. The website has very useful interviews on with psychologists on various career paths. SMG DHP: the Division of Health Psychology of the BPS. Access to publications, conferences, and special interest groups and chat rooms with membership. DHP

Jobs advertised at… Appointments Memorandum The Guardian, The Times, The Independent etc In specialist publications from the Health Service Journal and DoH website.DoH website DHP website