Dr Fiona Ulph PhD, CPsychol.

Lecturer in Qualitative Methods

Email: fiona.ulph@manchester.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)161 275 1979

School of Psychological Sciences
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL

British Psychological Society (Chartered Health Psychologist)
European Health Psychology Society
British Society for Human Genetics
European Society for Human Genetics

Senior advisor on qualitative methods for the NIHR Research Design Service for the North West.

Member of the steering committee for the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) Child Health Research Network.

My research interests surround the following three main areas:

Children's roles in health care

How does children's understanding of health and illness develop?
The developmental progression of decisional capabilities regarding health care/genetic testing decisions
How best to communicate with and support children in health care settings

Genetics

Children's understanding of genetic concepts
How people assimilate genetic risk information into their lives
Access and equity to genetic services
Communication of genetic information to parents and children following newborn screening
How new screening technologies are understood by the public
Familial communication about and involvement in health care

Qualitative projects

Emotion regulation
Evaluating interview techniques with children
Child centred information materials

Qualitative Methods:

Thematic analysis

IPA

Grounded Theory

Interviews

Focus Groups

Qualitative methods with children and adolescents

Quantitative Methods

I am admissions tutor for the BSc Psychology course.

I am module leader for and teach on the following courses:

MSc Clinical and Health Psychology, Research methods II (Qualitative and quantitative analysis).

MRes course, Qualitative Research Methods

Supervision of Doctoral Students

DClin Students

Simeon Hanson (2010-): "Parent training: A child's view"

PhD Students

Alisha Gibson (2009-): "Participating in a pharmacogenetic clinical trial: Views and information needs of adolescents, parents, health professionals and clinical trialists".

Melissa Noke (2010-): "The impact of carrier identification on children's wellbeing".

Completed Doctoral Students

Clare Backer (2009-2011) “The experiences of children with parents who have Bipolar Disorder”. Awarded Aii

Rebecca Murphy (2009- 2011) “Parenting with Bipolar Disorder”. Awarded Aii

Future Doctoral Students

I welcome enquiries from students wishing to study for a PhD or DClin degree with interests in the psychosocial aspects of genetic technologies, the use of qualitative methods to examine children's experiences of health care, how best to support children making decisions about research participation or medical treatments, family involvement in health care decisions/adaptation.

My first degree was a BSc in Psychology from the University of York. After that, I went to University College, London to study for an MSc in Health Psychology. My thesis examined children's understanding of illness to try and ascertain whether children could be judged to be competent to consent to treatment decisions. My PhD built on this work by looking at children's understanding of testing for a genetic illness. It focused on the newborn screening programme for cystic fibrosis as a model to explore children's understanding and information needs whilst being informed of personally relevant genetic information.

I subsequently worked as a research fellow on two applied genetics projects related to the national genetic screening programmes:

“Access and equity in genetic services: what can we learn from new national screening for common inherited disorders?” Funded by the Department of Health this study examined the uptake of genetic services by people identified as carriers of sickle cell and Thalassaemia via antenatal or neonatal screening. For further information please refer to this site.

'Communication of carrier status information following newborn screening: descriptive study of of current practice, methods and experience”. Funded by the Health Technology Assessment. This study explored current practice for imparting carrier status results to parents following newborn screening. It examined the feasibility and efficacy of different communication methods as well as parental experiences of receiving such information.

I am currently involved in a number of qualitative studies related to my main research interests of children's understanding and role in health care, public understanding of and adaptation to genetic advances, and the utility of qualitative methods for exploring children's experiences and views.

1998 BSc Hons Psychology, University of York
1999 MSc Health Psychology, Kings College London
2007, PhD Psychology "Children's understanding of testing for a genetic illness", University of Nottingham

Dr Rachel Calam