Dr Jon Rees

My specialisms are quantitative research methods, cognitive and biological psychology, addiction and the philosophical and historical underpinnings of psychology.

Over my time at Sunderland, I have led and taught modules across all undergraduate and postgraduate levels. For a number of years, I specialised in teaching introductory research methods and ran the stage 1 cross-curricular development weeks focusing on equality, diversity and inclusion, and gaming and adult play.

Currently, I am module leader for and teach the stage 3 modules: Psychology of Addiction and Advanced Quantitative Methods. I also run the stage 3 Clinical Psychology core module: Mental Health and Illness: applying and integrating. I am also the interprofessional learning (IPL) coordinator for the School of Psychology and teach statistics on our public health courses.

I also supervise research projects on the undergraduate and postgraduate project modules and perform PhD supervision.

• Health innovation and evaluation
• Health inequalities and access
• Male psychology especially relating to male mental health
• Statistical analysis relating to these topics

• The majority of my research is collaborative within and beyond the University and involves using statistical and research methods expertise coupled with a background in medicine to design, implement and evaluate projects which enhance health outcomes and deliver innovation. I have a wide range of experience working with a variety of health professionals including pharmacists, physiotherapists, North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and others to deliver projects which tackle health inequality and access to treatment on a local, regional and national basis. Some of the themes in my research include:
• Enhancing access to and uptake of lipid-lowering therapy to target cardiovascular disease risk, including evaluation of novel injectable therapies, enhancing secondary prevention by working with clinical pharmacists and improving primary prevention in underserved populations using ambulance-delivered roadside intervention.
• Identification and treatment of undiagnosed bone health problems and the reduction of fragility fractures in both local and regional populations
• Addiction and substance abuse, including projects to tackle prescription opioid over-use and abuse across the north east and north Cumbria, smoking cessation in undeserved populations and cannabis use in young people in Sunderland.
• Physical and mental health outcomes in NHS staff, particularly focusing on the sequelae of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Enhancement of NHS practice and procedures, e.g. evaluation of the GIT endoscopy diagnostic pathway in North Tees, implementation and evaluation of the HEIDI digital headache diary at Sunderland Royal Hospital, involvement with audit at sites across the region, development of a scale to measure staff confidence to deliver improvement at the RVI.
• Working with colleagues in the University and with Together for Children (Sunderland City Council) to provide statistical expertise, training and supervision as well as analysis, data mining, linking and reporting on large administrative data sets to enhance the experiences of children in the region.

Within the School of Psychology, I continue to have an interest in episodic memory and particularly its role in episodic future thinking and collaborate with colleagues on projects looking at the lived experience of autistic people.

• Quantitative research methods and statistical analysis
• Analysis of health related data including complex and large data sets
• Design, delivery and evaluation of health innovation and health enhancement projects
• Mixed methods and questionnaire design
• Research troubleshooting
• Cognitive psychology – especially episodic and autobiographical memory.