Rebecca Whear (she/her)

I joined PenCLAHRC in August 2009 (now PenARC). I am part of a team that helps to manage question prioritisation and conducts systematic reviews for relevant questions identified from this process.

After graduating from the University of Plymouth (BSc Psychology with Human Biology) I pursued my interest in human health by completing a masters at the University of Bristol (MSc Exercise, Health and Nutrition). I now has many years of experience in social and health related research. Latterly, I have mainly focused on systematic reviews but in the past has been involved with small pieces of quantitative and qualitative primary research. My main areas of interest include improving healthcare for patients and the NHS, intergenerational research, and mental health and wellbeing for  younger and older people, including dementia care.

My main skills are focused on the conduct of systematic reviews in health services research. However, I has also been involved with setting research agendas. Through my current role I have been involved in a number of systematic reviews related to the improvement of health services. The projects have ranged from looking at classroom management interventions to improve children’s outcomes, improving secondary care pathways for people with chronic and recurrent conditions, to understanding and developing the research around intergenerational interventions for mental health and wellbeing. The reviews aim to work with service users and providers to answer the questions most relevant to them and their practices. This is in order to ensure the results of the research are taken forward appropriately to bridge the gap between research and practice. The reviews I have been involved often require complex synthesis of results including narrative synthesis, qualitative synthesis and less often, meta-analysis.

I have also trained as a mentor through the UEMS Mentoring Scheme, supported by the UEMS Equality & Diversity Group, and would be available to provide peer and other mentoring opportunities. Please feel free to contact me, in confidence, so we can discuss this further.