Queen's University Belfast | Forbes, Trisha Jayne

Forbes, Trisha Jayne

Full time student

Year of Entry: 2011

Thesis Title: The role of schools in suicide postvention

Summary of Research: The focus of my PhD is suicide postvention as a means of preventing suicide contagion and clustering of suicides amongst adolescents in particular, and the part that the school community has to play in this process. The PhD builds on a project previously conducted in the Centre for Effective Education, sponsored by Contact, which aimed to explore the phenomenon of youth suicide clusters, primarily by examining whole-community responses to multiple deaths of young people by suicide. As research assistant on this project I was responsible for much of the qualitative fieldwork for this study, which focused on two areas in Belfast that have been deeply affected by youth suicide, a task which, while challenging, has undoubtedly contributed to my passion for this area of research.

I have worked as a Research Assistant in Queen’s University since the completion of my undergraduate Psychology degree in 2004, within the School of Psychology, the Widening Participation Unit, and most recently in the Centre for Effective Education. I completed an MPhil in the School of Psychology in 2009 which examined stability and change in students’ attitudes to religion during their first year at university. I also undertook the Certificate in Person-Centred Counselling in the School of Education in 2009/10.

Research Centre: Centre for Effective Education

Supervisors: Prof Ruth Leitch, Dr. Ulrike Neins