The Department of Psychology proudly hosted this year’s Psychology, Health and Medicine Conference, which took place in the Iontas Building, Maynooth University, on Friday 22nd of March 2019. This annual celebration of health psychology on the island of Ireland is now in its sixteenth year, and represents a highly successful ongoing collaboration of the Divisions of Health Psychology in the Psychological Society of Ireland and the British Psychological Society Northern Ireland Branch. Over 120 delegates from Ireland and further afield attended the conference, with representation from a broad range of third level institutions, healthcare organisations and service providers.
The conference had a packed schedule, including 30 oral presentations and 54 poster presentations showcasing a diverse range of high-quality innovative research at the interface of psychology, health and medicine, and featuring three internationally renowned keynote speakers – Ms. Marie Ennis-O’Connor, patient advocate and expert in healthcare social media; Prof. Claire Foster, Professor of Psychosocial Oncology and Director of the Macmillan Survivorship Research Group at the University of Southampton; and Prof. Carsten Wrosch, Research Chair in Ageing and Health and Professor of Psychology at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
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| L-r: Prof. Carsten Wrosch, Terri Morrissey, Marie-Ennis O-Connor, Prof. Claire Foster, Dr. Laura Coffey, Dr. Rebecca Maguire, Prof. Mac Maclachlan. |
Congratulations to the winners of our poster prizes (kindly sponsored by the ALL Institute), Dr. Ailish O'Brien of the National Learning Network (best General Poster) and Dr. Viveka Guzman of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), Trinity College Dublin (best Research in Development Poster). Congratulations also to the recipients of the PSI Division of Health Psychology’s Hannah McGee Excellence in Research/Practice Award, Dr. Maria Pertl of the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, and the Ruth Curtis Postgraduate Excellence in Research Award, Dr. Milou Fredrix of NUI Galway.
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| General Poster Prize winner, Dr. Ailish O'Brien (National Learning Network), with Dr. Michael Daly. |
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| Research in Development Poster Prize winner, Dr. Viveka Guzman (The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, Trinity College Dublin), with Dr. Michael Daly. |
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| Recipient of the Hannah McGee Excellence in Research/Practice Award, Dr. Maria Pertl (Royal College of Surgeons Ireland), with Dr. Frank Doyle (Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and outgoing chair of the PSI Division of Health Psychology). |
The Local Organising Committee wishes to thank the Health Research Board, Maynooth University Conference and Workshop Support Fund, MU Department of Psychology and the ALL Institute for their generous sponsorship of this event.
The 17th Psychology, Health and Medicine Conference will take place in University College Cork on May 22nd 2020 (Conference Chair: Dr. Karen Matvienko-Sikar).
MSc student Jamie Howell attended PHM 2019 and presents his personal reflections on the conference below:
“On the 22nd of March 2019, I attended the 16th Annual Psychology, Health and Medicine Conference. I was very excited to attend an event relating to health psychology, as I am new to the field as an MSc student in my first year. I was also very proud that the conference was held on my own campus at Maynooth University, particularly as we have a growing team of health psychology researchers.
The first keynote lecture of the conference was by Marie Ennis O'Connor- a cancer survivor and patient advocate. For me, this lecture was the highlight of the conference. Having a patient advocate give a lecture is something that is long overdue, and I feel that this talk will have inspired many researchers to consider how they can platform patient voices in their research and involve patients in research design.
After this lecture, I attended the Cancer Survivorship track of the morning parallel sessions. As cancer affects so many people, it was great to see a wide variety of quality research being conducted in this area. The talks ranged from sexual side effects of treatment to online support for cancer patients. All of this research was of a high quality, and those presenting seemed very passionate about their work.
Poster viewing took place over lunch, and I was particularly excited about this as I was presenting my research here. It was great to talk to others researching similar areas, as well as those who just wanted to know more. As well as this, I really enjoyed viewing everyone else’s posters. I was struck by the variety of research as well as how enthusiastic everyone was when talking about their work.
The next keynote lecture was by Professor Claire Foster, who discussed her work with the Macmillan Survivorship Research Group. This was an impressive study with a large sample size exploring recovery from and management of cancer. Again, it was encouraging to see quality research into something that affects so many.
For the afternoon parallel sessions, I went to some of those in the “Optimising the Delivery of Healthcare and Education” track, and some of those in the “Ageing, Health and Disability” track, as both had presentations that I wanted to see. Of these, I was particularly interested to hear how assistive technology is used in third level education, and about the surveillance of STIs and HIV in Ireland.
The final keynote speaker was by Professor Carsten Wrosch, who discussed how goal adjustment can affect mental and physical health. I found this talk very engaging, as it was counterintuitive. Professor Wrosch discussed how quitting or disengaging with unattainable goals could actually be beneficial. This was another highlight of the conference for me.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed attending this year’s Psychology, Health and Medicine Conference, and am already looking forward to next year’s conference.”