Hannah Sowery – Research Assistant

Hannah Sowery is a Research Assistant working on the RAPID Trial, and is involved in liaison with clinical teams, recruitment, and assessment of trial participants. Hannah previously worked on the Culturally Adapted Family Intervention (CaFI) trial at Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust before she began working on the RAPID trial in April 2022.

Hannah is originally from Liverpool and obtained a first-class Psychology degree from The University of Liverpool, where she won prizes for outstanding academic achievement and the Dennis Basil Bromley prize for her third-year qualitative dissertation which examined identity reformulation after stressful life events. During this time, Hannah became interested in research that conceptualised psychosis not as a mental illness, but rather as an understandable response to adversity. This interest led Hannah to complete her MSc Mental Health: Psychological Therapies at Queen Mary University of London with Distinction. She completed a meta-analysis for her MSc dissertation examining therapy dropout for people diagnosed with “treatment-resistant schizophrenia” and those with enduring psychosis symptoms.

Before joining PRU in January 2022, Hannah previously worked as a Clinical Support Worker on NHS mental health inpatient wards. She has also worked as a Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CCBT) mentor for young people with depression and anxiety and worked as a Service Evaluations Lead at a psychotherapy service for people bereaved through suicide. Prior to this she provided student support to medical students in The Liverpool School of Medicine. Hannah has also completed Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) where she gained skills to help people at immediate risk of suicide.

From her time working on acute wards, Hannah is extremely passionate about contributing to research that seeks to reduce re-traumatisation of people with a diagnosis of psychosis who may spend time in an inpatient setting. She is also passionate about contributing to research that tackles inequalities in the severe mental health population, particularly socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities. She hopes to complete a PhD at The University of Manchester looking at a process evaluation of the RAPID Trial.

Hannah is an avid Evertonian and enjoys (or endures) watching Everton play. She likes to go for long walks at the weekend and trains in Brazilian Jujitsu.