Keynote and invited speakers
Professor Gill Furze
Professor in Adult Nursing and Health Care, Coventry University
Gill Furze (PhD, RGN) is a Professor of Adult Nursing and Healthcare in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Coventry University. She is also President elect of the British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation and a Board Member for the West Midlands (South) Comprehensive Local Research Network. Gill worked as a cardiac nurse for many years before moving into research in 1996. Gill's research interests are cardiac rehabilitation, self-management in long-term conditions (particularly heart disease) and maladaptive beliefs and their impact on long-term condition management.
In 2007, Gill received the award for Excellence and Innovation in Research or Education at the inaugural Cardiac Nursing Awards of the British Association of Nurses in Cardiac Care.
In her keynote speech, Gill will be talking about current research in relation to cardiac misconceptions: "I'm going to explore the evidence for the effect of specific beliefs about heart disease on outcome, and discuss potential interventions to dispel misconceived or maladaptive beliefs."
Gill's talk in titled: 'It's what you believe that matters: Why and how we should dispel cardiac misconceptions'
Professor Roger Ingham
Professor of Health and Community Psychology and Director of the Centre for Sexual Health Research, The University of Southampton
Roger Ingham, BSc (London), DPhil (Oxford) is Professor of Health and Community Psychology at the University of Southampton and Director of the multidisciplinary Centre for Sexual Health Research. The Centre has, for over twenty five years, carried out research on various aspects of sexual conduct, teenage pregnancy, abortion decisions, educational and service provision in the UK and in other countries. The Centre is currently carrying out research on, amongst other issues, how parents answer young children's questions about bodies and reproduction and related issues, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Roger has worked closely with policy makers in this country and abroad, and has been a consultant/advisor for the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, the Ford Foundation, the European Commission and other agencies on their reproductive health and AIDS programmes.
He currently sits on the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, and is a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform's Independent Commission on Sex in Prisons. He was a member of the Independent Advisory Group of the former Government's Teenage Pregnancy Unit, core group involved in the development of the UK's first National Sexual Health and HIV Strategy and the Ministerial working party that explored the case for (and recommended) statutory SRE.
In his keynote talk, Roger will consider how relevant the notion of 'love' is for understanding why young people do (or don't) have sex. He will suggest that despite this being a Very Good reason for having sex within a romantic discourse it is arguably a Very Bad reason from a public health discourse. The impact of different discourses used by different players will be explored, and how these appear to affect dynamic processes and outcomes related to young people's sexual health.
Roger says: "Valentine's Day provides a suitable opportunity to explore what love has to do with sex, at least amongst young people."
Roger's talk is titled: 'What's love got to do with it - young people and sexual health'
Dr Tony Cassidy
Lecturer in Health Psychology and Chair of the Division of Health Psychology, Psychology Research Institute, University of Ulster
Dr Tony Cassidy (DPhil; CPsychol) is the current chair for the Division of Health Psychology and a lecturer in Health Psychology at the University of Ulster. Dr Cassidy is a Chartered Psychologist and has previously worked as Head of Psychology in a number of Universities.
Tony has research interests in many areas of psychology. His own research has primarily been in achievement motivation; problem solving style; stress, coping & health; child health & well-being and family factors in health and well-being. Examples of research projects he is currently involved in include Psychosocial Aspects of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and Stress and Health in Young Carers.
One of Tony's key aims as DHP chair is to improve career opportunities in Health Psychology: "While we have come a long way we have some way still to go and our most difficult and important task in the immediate future is to progress career opportunities for health psychology practitioners".
For any queries please contact the conference organisers:
Elaine Walket: elaine_walklet@hotmail.com
Bethan Davies: davies.e.b@gmail.com