Two IoP health psychologists win BPS awards
Dr Joseph Chilcot, lecturer in Health Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London and Dr Nicky Thomas, honorary lecturer at the IoP at King’s are the recipients of two major Health Psychology awards from the British Psychological Society (BPS).
Dr Chilcot received the BPS Early Career Researcher Award. His research focuses on the psychological factors associated with chronic illnesses, including illness representations, psychological distress, health behaviour and outcomes (non-adherence and survival). His current research focuses on developing and evaluating psychological interventions to improve psychosocial and clinical outcomes for dialysis patients.
Dr Thomas, who also heads up the Health Psychology service at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, received the BPS Award for Outstanding Contribution to Health Psychology. Dr Thomas is best known for her work on sickle cell disorder and in 1997 she set up the UK’s first adult health psychology service to support people with the condition. She teaches at the IoP on a number of doctorate clinical psychology and MSc health psychology courses, and supervises psychology trainees.
Professor Rona Moss-Morris, Head of the Health Psychology Section at the IoP at King’s says: “I am delighted that two out of the three 2013 national health psychology awards have gone to very deserving Health Psychologists at the IoP. Dr Joseph Chilcot is less than three years out of his PhD. He not only leads our MSc in health psychology but his research contributions to the renal field have already been nationally and internationally recognised. He was recently awarded the Inaugural Donna Lamping MDT Researcher Award for Outstanding Research in Kidney Care (British Renal Society). Dr Nicky Thomas is a real pioneer of clinical health psychology and an invaluable supervisor and teacher of both health psychology and clinical psychology students at the IoP. Her contributions to sickle cell disorder are an exemplar in this area.”
Part of the
Department of Psychology at the IoP, the
Health Psychology Section is internationally recognised for excellence in research and teaching and has been influential in the evolution of Health Psychology as a discipline in the UK. It benefits from collaborations within the IoP, but also across King’s with the School of Medicine, Dental Institute, School of Nursing and Midwifery and School of Biomedical Sciences, as well as clinical and research partnerships with King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.
The Awards were presented at the BPS Division of Health Psychology conference in Brighton last month.