Hannah Taylor
What was your reason for choosing Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience over the straight Psychology BSc?
I realised quite early on in my applications for university that it was often actually the neurological/biological elements of psychology that intruiged me. I not only wanted to know why people do what they do, but also the mechanisms that allow that to happen. I've always been fascinated by people, and I think certain modules in my Psychology A Level showed me what my real interests were in the field of psychology.
What is your current role and what does it involve?
I am currently in my first year of the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme on the General Management Stream. My first placement is as an Operational Manager in the Referral Management Centre at Forward Thinking Birmingham (the mental health services provider for 0-25s across Birmingham). Forward Thinking Birmingham is part of Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust.
I am responsible, along with the Clinical Lead of the service, to run the Referral Management Centre – which accepts referrals from all of Birmingham, which is easily 1500+ per month. This means I get involved in decision making, recruitment of staff, projects within the Mental Health division, and am also responsible for producing reports monthly that are presented to the Directors within the division.
How does your degree help you in your day to day job?
Working in mental health means I use my degree almost every day! If nothing else, my knowledge of mental health and psychological disorders helps me when understanding the complexity of referrals, and while I'm not triaging them myself, it's always useful to have an understanding. I think it also helps when making operational decisions, as in order for the service to run effectively you need to have an understanding of the potential psychological harm of certain decisions and the impact this could have on the young people in Birmingham.
My degree has also proven very helpful in building relationships, especially with clinicians. Operational Managers are often perceived quite negatively by clinicians, but I think the fact I'm 'one of them' (in that I have a psychology degree and am very passionate about mental health) has certainly helped! I've also been quite lucky in the fact that Psychologists are very accommodating to me and more than happy to talk to me about their work.
What was your final year research project on? Did this relate to or inspire your career prospects?
I can't talk enough how much I loved my final year research project! I investigated the influence of autistic traits, Alexithymia and attachment type on participants' ability to recognise emojis representing facial expressions. I think in a lot of ways it did inspire my career prospects, but maybe not in the way that might be assumed. I'm extremely interested in Autism, and neurodevelopmental conditions more widely and I think my research project really allowed this to flourish. If I do end up working clinically, I would like to do so in the realm of Paediatric Neuropsychology I think, and I think my project really spurred this on.
It also gave me a lot of confidence, as my tutor has wanted to submit it for publication – and I think when it's something you've worked so hard on, to have that recognised is so rewarding and has really, really helped my confidence in applying for a very competitive scheme.