RCOMH Director Dr Katrina Bannigan
“I feel honoured to be a part of such an
exciting development like RCOMH. I look forward to being part of a
project that will bring people who use and work in mental health
settings together, to develop the evidence base which will
influence practice in the future”
In my work…
I am a Reader in Occupational Therapy at York St John
University. This involves me being a part of the mental health
teaching team, leading undergraduate research at York St John
University and supervising postgraduate students. I am the York St
John University research lead on the ALPS CETL and I am currently
involved in the (Competency in Practice Assessment) CIPA
project.
Some background about me…
I studied occupational therapy at the University of Derby before
moving to a mental health rotational post in Central Scotland. That
was the start of my journey around the country that has taken me to
Nuneaton (Warwickshire), York, Hull, Middlesbrough and back to
York. During this time I have moved from working in mental health
settings to academic posts and have completed a PhD.
I have a long standing interest in developing research in
occupational therapy through evidence based practice and building
research capacity. Which why I have ended up leading the work,
mental health and well being research programme as part of RCOMH.
So far we have secured funds for and conducted a scoping study to
develop an understanding of interdisciplinary research in the field
of work, mental health and well being (The WORK Project). I am in
the process of disseminating the study’s findings and working with
Clair Le Boutiller to develop a proposal for further work based on
what we found out.
The professional activities I am engaged
in…
In the past I have been the council member for research and
development and vice-chair of council for the College of
Occupational Therapists. I am currently the research and
development member of the executive committee of the College of
Occupational Therapist’s specialist section for mental health. I
review for a number of different journals including the Journal of
Advanced Nursing and the Canadian Journal of Occupational
Therapy.