Profile

Biography

Dr Paul Toner is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He is currently a Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) Griffith Edwards Academic Fellow (2015-19) developing alcohol screening and assessment measures for young people and has worked in the addictions field for several years.

Paul was a Research Fellow (Assistant Professor) in the Department of Health Sciences until August 2018. Previously he was a co-investigator on an NIHR HTA funded project - Adaptation and feasibility study of a family and social network intervention for young people who misuse alcohol and drugs - with colleagues from the University of Birmingham and on an Alcohol Research UK funded study - A national study of acute care alcohol health workers.

Other examples of addiction-related projects he has worked on include: a mixed methods evaluation of the national Alcohol Improvement Programme commissioned by the Department of Health through the NIHR Policy Research Programme; ESRC funded research on developing a new social support measure for the family members of problem substance users; a review of the Bristol Maternity Drug Service; and an evaluation of the pilot Family Alcohol Service, London.

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Psychology, First Class – Queen’s University Belfast
• MSc Social Research – University of Bath
• PhD Psychology – University of Bath
• CPsychol – British Psychological Society
• Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice - University of York

Research

Overview

Paul's research interests are in addiction and mental health research; mixed methodology; psychometrics and psychological approaches to assessment and intervention.

Projects

• Development of an alcohol screening and assessment measure for young people

Research group(s)

• Mental Health and Addiction

Publications

Full publications list

• Paul Toner's publications

External activities

Memberships

• Member of the Society for the Study of Addiction
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
• Addiction and the Family International Network
• Alcohol and Families Alliance - this is a joint initiative from Alcohol Concern and Adfam, which acts as a resource for influencing policy on alcohol and families
• International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol and Other Drugs (INEBRIA)
• Grant reviewer for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), National Institute for Health Research (England), National Institute for Social Care and Health Research (Wales), Chief Scientist Office (Scotland) and Cross-border Healthcare Intervention Trials in Ireland Network (CHITIN)
• Article reviewer for several academic journals including: Addiction, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Addiction Research and Theory, Drug and Alcohol Review, International Journal of Drug Policy, Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, British Journal of Social Work and Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
• Book proposal reviewer for Oxford University Press

Invited talks and conferences

• The development of an item bank to assess alcohol use and alcohol problems in young people. 49th International Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, Amsterdam, June 2018
• The development of new alcohol screening and assessment measures for young people. Society for the Study of Addiction Annual Conference, Newcastle, November 2017.
• Capturing risky and problem drinking in young people. 41st Annual International New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group Conference, Weston-super-Mare, May 2017.
• A systematic review of alcohol screening and assessment measures for young people. 13th Annual Conference of INEBRIA, Lausanne, Switzerland, September 2016.