Rate My Professor Helen Poole

Helen Poole is Professor of Applied Health Psychology and Director of the School of Psychology within the Faculty of Health at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). She earned her PhD in 2002 and a first-class BSc (Hons) in 1998 from LJMU. Registered as a Health Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (PYL19724) and a full member of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Health Psychology (75980), Poole integrates academic leadership, teaching health psychology and research methods, supervision of Professional Doctorate trainees and MSc Health Psychology students, research, and consultancy activities.

Her research examines the psychosocial consequences of long-term health conditions, with a particular emphasis on chronic pain and cancer. Proficient in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, she has created Patient Reported Outcome Measures tailored for neuropathic pain and polypharmacy patients. Funding for her projects has come from diverse sources, including NHS Trusts, local authorities, pharmaceutical companies, the European Regional Development Fund, and charities like the Pain Relief Foundation and the Burdett Trust for Nursing. Ongoing initiatives encompass developing educational interventions for prescribers to curb opioid use in chronic non-cancer pain, assessing interventions aiding opioid reduction or cessation in such patients, investigating COVID-19's effects on oncology staff, nurses, and cancer patients, and analyzing factors behind emergency hospitalizations in cancer patients with complex comorbidities. Notable publications include “Depression in Chronic Pain Patients: Prevalence, Severity and Clinical Correlates” (Poole et al., 2009), “Individual Differences and Similarities in the Judgement of Facial Pain from Photographic Evidence” (Glenn, Poole, & Oulton, 2020), “Distortions to the passage of time during chronic pain: a mixed method study” (Ogden et al., 2023), and “A mixed-methods evaluation of the acceptability and fidelity of the James Place model for men experiencing suicidal crisis” (Hanlon et al., 2023). Additionally, she serves as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Pain Research Institute since 2004.