Hilary comes to academia following a career in social care and mental health. She completed her BSc in Social Science with the Open University, and her MSc in Counselling Psychology at the University of Worcester. Both of these degrees were undertaken part time whilst Hilary pursued her career. Returning to academia full-time to undertake a PhD, Hilary explored the experiences of UK Higher Education Institution staff members following a student death by suicide. She utilised mixed methods to identify perceptions of impact and to explore experiences and meaning making processes of staff across a range of job-roles, in order to inform future postvention provision with the HE and FE sectors.
In her research Hilary has engaged a number of qualitative methodologies including Qualitative Research Synthesis and Meta-synthesis; Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis; Thematic Analysis and Constructivist Grounded Theory. She is particularly interested in the topic of quality in qualitative research.
Her current research focuses on understanding the impact of colleague suicide on NHS workers and understanding their needs to inform the development of organisational guidance.
Hilary’s interest in workplace wellbeing has developed over the years, following her experiences of supporting colleagues and teams as a Lead Practitioner. At the University of Worcester Hilary engaged this knowledge and experience to become a founding member of the University of Worcester Staff Mental Health Network.