Oliver Hawley BMus (Hons)

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Research Associate

Contact details

Address
Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Oliver Hawley is a Research Associate in the Department of Applied Health Research at the University of Birmingham. He is a lived experience researcher working on the Improving mental health peer support for children and young people: A mixed methods realist modelling study.

Oliver has a background in lived experience mental health work for both children and young people and adult services, specialising in coproduction, peer support, and tackling health inequalities. They have worked in a range of lived experience roles within the NHS and partner organisations where they delivered service improvement initiatives.

ORCiD ID: 0000-0002-7766-0838

Qualifications

  • Level 7 Module in Equality and the Law, Birkbeck University, 2024
  • Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Skills, SEG Awards, 2024
  • Level 7 Microcredential in Online Learning: Embedding Social, Racial, and Gender-related Equity, The Open University, 2022
  • University Certificate in Psychology, 2022
  • Award in Peer Support Worker Supervision, ImROC 2021
  • Award in Peer Support Work, ImROC, 2021
  • BMus (Hons) in Music, University of Birmingham, 2020

Biography

Oliver started work in mental health as a lived experience worker alongside his music studies at The University of Birmingham. He has worked across a wide range of fields including NHS peer support provision, community recovery initiatives, the youth justice sector, sexual violence prevention, and more. They enjoy teaching and have delivered on courses at the University of Northampton and the University of Derby, as well as for a variety of NHS Trusts and secondary schools across the UK.

Oliver also has a keen interest in equality and social justice, especially in relation to mental health. He has worked as the Equity and Inclusion lead for the international mental health recovery charity, ImROC, and undertaken studies in Equality and Human Rights law, as well as equitable approaches to teaching. Oliver would like to apply this to their research and hopes to develop research projects around decolonising mental health and redeveloping more inclusive models of working.

Their notable achievements include:

  • Training over 250 peer support workers and peer supervisors, UK-wide.
  • Publishing a book chapter on children and young people’s peer support, aged 24.
  • Sitting on a steering group to found a national cooperative for the children and young people’s lived experience workforce (current role).
  • Performing in the opening ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Publications

Hawley, O. (2023) “Peer Support: An Alternative Approach to Using Lived Experience”., In Sharpe, H., and Walker, L.(eds.) Participation in Children and Young People’s Mental Health: An Essential Guide. Oxford: Routledge, pp.181-204.

View all publications in research portal