Ms Suzanne Allen

Suzanne is a Chartered Health Psychologist practitioner who completed her stage 1 training (MSc in Health Psychology) at the University of Stirling in 1997 and her stage 2 training via the independent route in Ireland. A founding member and former Chair of the Division of Health Psychology of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI), Suzanne holds a professional diploma in clinical supervision and is an accredited clinical supervisor of PSI, and a member of the Heads of Psychology Services Ireland (HPSI) group of PSI. Suzanne left the HSE in 2003 to take up a psychologist post in Rehab Group and is currently leading a national psychology department in RehabCare as Principal Psychologist.

I am currently nearing completion of the Top-Up Professional Doctorate in Health Psychology at the University of Stirling.

My research is as follows:

Enhancing supported decision-making skills amongst health and social care staff and the adult service users with disabilities they support.

Supervisors:

Dr Lesley McGregor and Dr Purva Abhyankar (with support from Professor Vivien Swanson)

Brief description:

How people are supported to make decisions (e.g. about their health), and how decisions are made on their behalf when they cannot do this, has a key role in the direction of the lives of people with disabilities. Decision-making capacity legislation has changed fundamentally in Ireland since 2023 with the signing into law of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act (2015) (referred to as ADM).

Under this act, all adults are presumed to have capacity to make decisions, with support, if necessary, unless proven otherwise, regardless of intellectual disability, age etc.

This represents a huge shift with vulnerable adults enjoying enhanced rights in all aspects of life, including health. ADM represents a significant shift in practice away from best-interests decision-making.

It instead endorses an approach based on the will and preference, beliefs and values of the person as the only considerations in decision-making. ADM includes provision to support unwise decision-making by persons who lack capacity. Therefore, the onus is on health and social care organisations to respond quickly, by appropriately upskilling staff.

My research aims to explore the barriers and facilitators to engaging in supported decision-making both for staff and service users, so that a training intervention can be designed for each group.

Suzanne has delivered some lectures during her time on the doctorate at Stirling such as: Health & Clinical Psychology Contributions to Eating Difficulties, delivered to third year undergraduate psychology students in Spring 2025.