Rate My Professor Hannah Cootes

Dr. Hannah Cootes serves as Conjoint Associate Lecturer in the School of Medicine and Public Health within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy and Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) from the same institution. Her research explores health and illness through interdisciplinary lenses including social work, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and public health. Her PhD investigated the role of social work knowledge in multidisciplinary health care teams, highlighting ethical concerns around power and injustice.

With clinical expertise as a social worker at Hunter New England Local Health District in areas such as Mental Health Care Coordination, Rural Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Specialist Homelessness Services, Intensive Family Support, and Out of Home Care, Cootes has transitioned into research project management. She managed a program on eHealth technologies for mental health and was a senior member of Professor Kay-Lambkin’s team from 2019-2023, developing tech-based mental health interventions. Key projects include leading the CarerWell app development (2020-2022), serving as Chief Investigator for a MHF Brain Cancer Research fund project on rural care coordination (2022-2023), and contributing to Mindframe National Guidelines (2022-2023). Awarded the Vice Chancellor’s PhD by Training Scholarship in 2019, she has authored publications such as “‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’? Exploring Social Work’s Epistemic Contribution to Team-Based Health Care” (British Journal of Social Work, 2022), “It’s Hard, but We Could Kind of Laugh About It: Exploring the Role of Humor in Brain Cancer Caregiving” (Qualitative Health Research, 2022), and “Words and Images Matter: Perspectives on Suicide, Mental Health Concerns and Alcohol and Other Drug Use Depiction” (Healthcare, 2024). Her work has secured grants totaling over $278,000.