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Hennessy, Eilis
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Hennessy, Eilis
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Hennessy, Eilis
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- PublicationStudy Protocol: Prospective, observational, cohort study of COVID-19 in General Practice (North Dublin COVID-19 Cohort [‘ANTICIPATE’] Study)(Health Research Board, 2020-09-17)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Background: It is accepted that COVID-19 will have considerable long-term consequences, especially on people’s mental and physical health and wellbeing. Although the impacts on local communities have been immense, there remains little data on long term outcomes among patients with COVID-19 who were managed in general practice and primary care. This study seeks to address this knowledge gap by examining how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the medium and long-term health and wellbeing of patients attending general practice, especially their mental health and wellbeing. Methods: The study will be conducted at 12 general practices in the catchment area of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, i.e. the North Dublin area, an area which has experienced an especially high COVID-19 incidence. Practices will be recruited from the professional networks of the research team. A member of the general practice team will be asked to identify patients of the practice who attended the practice after 16/3/20 with a confirmed or presumptive diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. Potential participants will be provided with information on the study by the clinical team. Data will be collected on those patients who consent to participate by means of an interviewer-administered questionnaire and review of clinical records. Data will be collected on health (especially mental health) and wellbeing, quality of life, health behaviours, health service utilisation, and wider impacts of COVID-19 at recruitment and at two follow up time points (6, 12 months). Deliverables: The project involves collaboration with Ireland’s Health Service Executive, Ireland East Hospital Group, and the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. The study is funded by the Health Research Board. Findings will inform health policies that attenuate the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on population mental health and health generally.265 - PublicationSeeking multiple perspectives : a qualitative investigation of ADHD in Ireland(2011-04)
; The overall aim of this research was to develop an understanding of the experiences of children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) in Ireland. Fifteen 7-12 year old boys with a diagnosis of AD/HD were the primary participants in this research. Eighteen of their parents/guardians and seventeen of their teachers also took part. Participants from each group took part in semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that the experience of AD/HD had a significant impact on the lives of those affected by it. Parents and teachers described the difficulties in managing the needs of the child with AD/HD alongside the needs of the whole family and the other children in the class respectively. Children reported various challenges at home and at school, with the majority of children in this study reporting a particular dislike of school. All three groups of participants report limited understanding of the condition and commented on the stigma associated with AD/HD. Finally despite the challenges and demands of the AD/HD experience in Ireland each group of participants reported positive experiences and had an optimistic viewpoint. Children in particular described overly positive social experiences which are at odds with parent and teacher reports. It is possible that this reflects a positive illusory bias.709 - PublicationStigma and youth mental health: The importance of social context(2013-09-30)The term stigma has been widely used in the social sciences since the 1960s, however until recently it has rarely been applied in the context of youth mental health. This paper, which addresses the stigma of youth mental health, has two main aims. The first is to explain what is meant by stigma and to give examples of stigma drawn from interviews with young people with mental health problems. The second aim is to explore what is known about the development of stigma and to argue that researchers interested in the topic could learn much from theoretical approaches to the study of the development of intergroup relationships and prejudice. What is stigma? The term is complex but is usually considered to encompass three different components: stereotypes (e.g. young people with mental health problems are disruptive), prejudices (e.g. I would not like to be friends with someone with depression) and discrimination (e.g. I would not invite someone with schizophrenia to a party). The paper will begin by presenting young people's personal experiences of these components of stigma and will argue that social exclusion is a serious problem, as young people need to be part a network of peers in order to develop social skills and confidence. Research also suggests that young people who stigmatize may themselves suffer, as they may be less willing to seek help if they develop mental health problems. The paper will then consider research on the development of stigmatizing attitudes by drawing on the findings of a series of studies with young people (from middle childhood through adolescence) that have explored negative attitudes towards peers with mental health problems. Evidence from these studies suggests how young people react depends on their age, their gender and on the type of mental health problem they encounter in their peers. For example, research suggests that older teenagers are more accepting of behaviour associated with ADHD, whereas they are less accepting of males with symptoms of depression. The findings of studies like this will be used to argue that developmental inter-group theory, originally proposed to explain the development of prejudice in childhood, has potential as a framework for understanding how mental health stigma develops. The theory proposes that stigma begins to develop early in life as people are identified as different, through their behaviour their looks or the way they are treated. Once children learn to categorize their peers, they are then susceptible to messages that peers who are different (such as those with mental health problems) have negative characteristics e.g. they are untrustworthy. The value of a unifying theoretical approach is that it can highlight gaps in existing knowledge about the development of stigma, it can point to important topics for future research and it can provide a rationale for the design and implementation of anti-stigma programmes. Such efforts to reduce stigma have the potential to accrue long-term benefits by improving the quality of life of all young people.
478 - PublicationUsing implicit measures to evaluate mental health stigma and attitudes to help-seeking(2013-12)
; ; ; ; Aims: The paper introduces and describes the use of implicit measures of attitude in two separate studies. The aim of the first study was to explore children's and adolescents' (10 to 16 years) stigmatizing responses towards hypothetical peers with either ADHD or depression. The aim of the second was to investigate whether a brief on-line intervention could change young adults' (18 to 25 years) attitudes towards help-seeking for mental health problems. Methods: Implicit measures, such as the Implicit Associations Test (IAT) do not require research participants to overtly express their beliefs. They are used where there is a high risk that research participants will offer socially desirable responses about stereotypes and prejudices. In the first study, an adapted IAT, in conjunction with questionnaires, was used to measure attitudes towards a vignette describing a peer who had ADHD or depression. In the second study, the Single Category IAT was used to measure young adults' attitudes towards professional help-seeking for mental health problems. Results: The findings showed that young people were more stigmatising towards peers with mental health problems and treatment seeking on implicit compared to explicit measures. The patterns of responses between the measures highlights the value of using implicit measures to enhance our understanding of such phenomena. Conclusions: Implicit measures may prove to be a useful tool for researchers who are interested in stigma associated with mental health problems in young people and their treatment. Lessons learned from the use of implicit measures in these studies will be highlighted.306 - PublicationHow to tackle stigma and bias: Lessons from childhood diseases and disabilities(2014-05-07)This paper considers the importance of tackling the stigma of obesity and focuses particularly on what is known about the way in which stigma develops. Stigma is considered as a complex construct comprising attitudes, prejudices and discriminatory behaviour. In light of this conceptualisation of stigma, a range of anti-stigma interventions are discussed that have been designed to tackle the stigma associated with epilepsy, Tourette's syndrome, obesity and mental disorders. The paper considers what is currently know about interventions that work and points to the limitations in the existing research on anti-stigma interventions. Finally some suggestions are made on how to move forward.
200 - PublicationChildren as service evaluatorsIn recent years there has been a growing interest in methods of eliciting children's views on factors influencing their lives. When children's views are sought it is important that this is done in a developmentally appropriate manner with instruments whose psychometric properties are known. The present review describes a variety of methods that have been used to evaluate children’s satisfaction with services in education, paediatrics and mental health. The majority of the studies used self completion questionnaires and provided only limited information on reliability. Means of establishing reliability and validity in research with children are discussed, as are the variables which have been found to correlate with child satisfaction.
898 - PublicationA blueprint for providing resources to parents of adolescents who self-harm(Health Service Executive, 2022-07-07)
; ; ; ; ; ; This report presents the findings of a research project funded by the Irish National Office for Suicide Prevention and was a collaboration between UCD School of Psychology and Pieta. The report details the findings of a scoping review, parent survey and Delphi study with professionals that sought to identify the information needs of parents of adolescents who self-harm. The report presents the findings of all elements of the research and provides recommendations on the information that should be provided to parents to support them at all stages of their journey from discovery of self-harm, through treatment and into recovery.281 - PublicationAn exploration of mental health literacy in relation to depression in secondary school pupils(Macrothink Institute, 2017-07)
; ; ; Mental Health Literacy (MHL) refers to knowledge and beliefs about mental health problems. Although mostly studied in adult samples, it has been associated with help-seeking intentions and health service use in adolescents. The aim of the present study was to explore depression MHL and its association with help seeking intentions in a sample of adolescent participants (n = 235, 135 males) from the final three years of secondary school (mean = 16.6 years, SD = .65) in Ireland. Knowledge of depression and help-seeking intentions were measured using vignettes and self-report instruments. Findings show that the majority of adolescents recognised that a combination of depression symptoms constituted a serious mental health problem. However, they demonstrated very low MHL levels on specific symptoms such as somatic pains.The finding of restricted knowledge of depression symptoms, indicates a need for targeted interventions to improve MHL, and specifically of symptoms of depression.446 - PublicationBridging the gap between theory and practice in creativity education(2013-08)
; ; This paper presents the findings of an inter-disciplinary literature review that seeks to provide an evidence-base from which discipline specific and cross-disciplinary modules aimed at nurturing and developing creativity can be developed. The review focuses on identifying theoretical frameworks guiding the pedagogy of creativity as well as on the environmental conditions that are associated with greater levels of creativity in student learning. The paper will present an overview of key theoretical frameworks (e.g. investment theory and design thinking) as well as an evaluation of the empirical research on the environmental factors that have been demonstrated as influencing student creative development. Amongst these are tolerance of and exposure to: risk, cycles of divergent and convergent thinking, an active learner-centred approach to education, rewarding originality, learning from failure and experimentation and an acceptance of diversity. The paper will also discuss methods of assessment and their influence on student creativity. The paper will offer a critical reflection on our understanding of the pedagogy of creativity and point to directions for future work in this important area.395