Rob Allison, Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, Department of Health Sciences
Rob has experience working with a wide range of mental health problems in a variety of clinical settings but particularly focusing on people and families affected by psychosis.
email: rob.allison@york.ac.uk
Our 60-second interview with Rob:
What do you do in the field of mental health?
Most of my work involves teaching pre-registration nursing students, predominantly in relation to psychological and sociological approaches to understanding and supporting health. Some of my work and my main area of interest involves psychosis and, specifically, voice hearing and supporting clinical practitioners and voice hearers to understand and identify ways to reduce voices and related distress.
What do you find most rewarding and inspiring in this work?
Learning from people and sharing knowledge about mental health. Helping practitioners and people distressed by voice hearing to find meaningful ways to make sense of voices and to develop more peaceful relationships between voice hearers and their voices.
What is the most challenging or complicated aspect of this work?
Protecting and balancing time and workload! Trying to establish effective ways to transfer theoretical knowledge into clinical practice and to ensure practice informs healthcare (and specifically nursing) education.
What impact do you hope your work is having- or can potentially have?
I hope I can contribute towards improving the knowledge and subsequent supportive approaches provided by future nursing and healthcare practitioners towards people experiencing mental/emotional distress, and especially those distressed by voice hearing.
Could you share with us one piece of advice that you follow for your own mental health?
Boundaries and balance! Having a clear work-life balance (i.e., avoid work-creep into the evenings and weekends!) and commitment to regular physical exercise (good for health and socialising).