People_
Professor Nicola Hancock
BAppSc(OT) and PhD
Discipline of Occupational Therapy
Research Education Academic Director (READ)
Research Education Academic Director (READ)
Details
Member of Sydney Southeast Asia Centre
Websites
Associate Professor Nicola Hancock is an occupational therapist with >30 years’ experience in mental health clinical practice, education, and research. She leads the mental health team within the Centre for Disability Research and Policy, is a Faculty Research Education Academic Director, supporting and directing the candidatures of >150 higher degree research students and their academic supervisory teams.
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Nicola’s research focuses on making a positive difference in the daily lives and recovery journeys of people living with mental illness.
She developed a self-report measure of mental health recovery, Recovery Assessment Scale – Domains and Stages (RAS-DS), arguably the most psychometrically sound self-report measure of recovery developed internationally. The RAS-DS is used in +200 organisations/programs, across > 25 countries, and increasingly across all Australian mental health sectors. It has been translated into 18 languages to-date (www.ras-ds.net.au). Nicola now leads an MRFF grant to co-design and test a digital RAS-DS focused resource.
Predominantly a qualitative researcher, Nicola works to build deeper insights into the lived experiences of mental health recovery, specifically hopefulness, meaningful engagement, self-determination, connection and belonging. She also examines service models and initiatives that purport to enhance mental health consumer participation and inclusion. Just some of these initiatives include the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), Recovery College, peer worker supported transition from hospital to community, and the International Clubhouse Model.
Employing co-production and participatory approaches, Nicola works in partnership with lived experience researchers, employs lived-experience research assistants and gains funding to facilitate lived-experience-led research. She prioritises the voice of lived experience and currently supervises two HDR students whose work is driven by personal experience of mental ill-health and recovery. Her teaching also reflects these co-design and production principles.
Teaching
- Nicola teaches mental health units across graduate and under-graduate occupational therapy courses.
- Nicola is the Research Education Academic Director (READ) for higher degree research students and supervisors within the Faculty's School of Health Sciences.
- She currently supervises the following students:
PhD
- Kylie Stewart: Successful community living for people with schizophrenia: the role cognition and formal and informal support
- Karen Wells: The longer-term impacts of ECT and the strategies employed by consumers to navigate these.
- Debra Hamilton: Exploring experiences of choice and control: NDIS participants living with psychosocial disability
- Erin Fearn-Smith: A screening protocol for identifying cognitive impairment and brain injury amongst people accessing specialist homelessness services
- Fiona Green: Development of a recovery to work model for adults with common mental health conditions who have been previously employed and are receiving Income Protection Insurance benefits.
- Kelly McGrath: Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue in rural and remote rehabilitation healthcare workers
Honours
- Each year Nicola supervises one or two honours students
Just some of the funded research projects that Nicola is currently working on include:
Hancock, N., Scanlan, J., Banfield, M. & Norris, S. (2019-21). PeerSTOC: Implementation, outcome and economic evaluations. Mental Health Branch, NSW Department of Health.
Lovarini, M., Mackenzie, L., Meehan, M., Hancock, N., & Scanlan, J. (2019-21). A tailored falls prevention program for older people with mental illness living in the community. Medical Research Future Fund: Rapid Applied Research Translation Grants
Centre for Disability and Research Policy and consortia of other disability groups/organisations. (2020-21). National Disability Research Agenda. National Disability Research Partnership.
Honey, A.,Hancock, N., NOUS Group Consulting (2020-21. Evaluation of national psychosocial support programs. Australian Department of Health, Canberra.
Hancock, N, Scanlan, J.N., & Honey, A., Kusumawardhani, A…. (2018-2020). Mental health in Indonesia - understanding recovery and enhancing recovery-oriented practice. Sydney South East Asia Partnership Grant.
Neurosciences and Mental Health
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Development of a recovery to work model for adults with common mental health conditions who have been previously employed and are receiving Income Protection Insurance benefits. | Fiona GREEN |
Publications
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Journals
- McGrath, K., Matthews, L., Heard, R., Hancock, N. (2024). Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue: Experiences of Rehabilitation Healthcare Workers in Rural and Remote Locations in Australia. Health and Social Care in the Community, 2024, 2823441. [More Information]
- Morahan, H., Hancock, N., Bero, L., Rooney, K. (2024). Experiences of early career researchers: Influences on the design and reporting of animal experiments, and the practical and emotional support needed to enhance best practice methods. Laboratory Animals. [More Information]
- Arblaster, K., Mackenzie, L., Buus, N., Chen, T., Gill, K., Gomez, L., Hamilton, D., Hancock, N., McCloughen, A., Nicholson, M., Quinn, Y., Scanlan, J., Schneider, C., Schweizer, R., Wells, K., et al (2023). Co-design and evaluation of a multidisciplinary teaching resource on mental health recovery involving people with lived experience. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal. [More Information]
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Conferences
- Smith-Merry, J., Gillespie, J., Hancock, N., Yen, I. (2016). Facilitating recovery in a complex setting: The role of Support Facilitators. The MHS Annual Mental Health Services Conference: 2015 TheMHS Conference: Translating Best Practice into Reality, Australia: TheMHS Learning Network Inc.
- Wayland, S., Smith-Merry, J., Kokany, A., Hancock, N. (2016). Identifying ways to broaden recovery narratives - the lived experience of mental health consumers of Western Sydney recovery services. TheMHS Conference on "People: Authenticity Starts in the Heart", Auckland: TheMHS Learning Network Inc.
- Honey, A., Alchin, S., Hancock, N. (2014). Knowing what to do and being able to do it: How mental health services influence the strategies parents use to support young people with mental illness. TheMHS Conference on "People: Authenticity Starts in the Heart", Auckland: TheMHS Learning Network Inc.
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Report
- Hancock, N., Mellifont, D., Scanlan, J., Hamilton, D., Smith-Merry, J. (2022). Breaking down Barriers: Co-designed recommendations to reduce stakeholder identified NDIS access barriers for people with psychosocial disability. The University of Sydney.
- Smith-Merry, J., Hancock, N., Gilroy, J., Llewellyn, G., Yen, I., Bresnan, A. (2018). Mind the Gap: The National Disability Insurance Scheme and psychosocial disability. Final Report: Stakeholder identified gaps and solutions.
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2024
- McGrath, K., Matthews, L., Heard, R., Hancock, N. (2024). Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue: Experiences of Rehabilitation Healthcare Workers in Rural and Remote Locations in Australia. Health and Social Care in the Community, 2024, 2823441. [More Information]
- Morahan, H., Hancock, N., Bero, L., Rooney, K. (2024). Experiences of early career researchers: Influences on the design and reporting of animal experiments, and the practical and emotional support needed to enhance best practice methods. Laboratory Animals. [More Information]
2023
- Arblaster, K., Mackenzie, L., Buus, N., Chen, T., Gill, K., Gomez, L., Hamilton, D., Hancock, N., McCloughen, A., Nicholson, M., Quinn, Y., Scanlan, J., Schneider, C., Schweizer, R., Wells, K., et al (2023). Co-design and evaluation of a multidisciplinary teaching resource on mental health recovery involving people with lived experience. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal. [More Information]
- Fearn Smith, E., Scanlan, J., Hancock, N. (2023). Exploring and Mapping Screening Tools for Cognitive Impairment and Traumatic Brain Injury in the Homelessness Context: A Scoping Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), 3440-1-3440-52. [More Information]
- Honey, A., Hancock, N., Barton, R., Berry, B., Gilroy, J., Glover, H., Hines, M., Waks, S., Wells, K. (2023). How do Mental Health Services Foster Hope? Experience of People Accessing Services. Community Mental Health Journal, 59(5), 894-903. [More Information]
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2022
- Mellifont, D., Hancock, N., Scanlan, J., Hamilton, D. (2022). Barriers to applying to the NDIS for Australians with psychosocial disability: A scoping review. Australian Journal of Social Issues. [More Information]
- Hancock, N., Mellifont, D., Scanlan, J., Hamilton, D., Smith-Merry, J. (2022). Breaking down Barriers: Co-designed recommendations to reduce stakeholder identified NDIS access barriers for people with psychosocial disability. The University of Sydney.
- Low, L., Barcenilla-Wong, A., Andrew Fitzpatrick, M., Swaffer, K., Brodaty, H., Hancock, N., McLoughlin, J., Naismith, S. (2022). Dementia lifestyle coach pilot program. Australasian Journal on Ageing. [More Information]
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2021
- De Silva, K., Cockshaw, W., Rehm, I., Hancock, N. (2021). A short form of the Recovery Assessment Scale-Domains and Stages: Development and validation among adults with anxiety disorders. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 28(5), 1135-1145. [More Information]
- Honey, A., Waks, S., Hines, M., Glover, H., Hancock, N., Hamilton, D., Smith-Merry, J. (2021). COVID-19 and Psychosocial Support Services: Experiences of People Living with Enduring Mental Health Conditions. Community Mental Health Journal, 57(7), 1255-1266. [More Information]
- Wells, K., Hancock, N., Honey, A. (2021). The experience of living after ECT: a qualitative meta-synthesis. Journal of Mental Health, 30(4), 526-540. [More Information]
2020
- Yeung, W., Hancock, N., Honey, A., Wells, K., Scanlan, J. (2020). Igniting and Maintaining Hope: The Voices of People Living with Mental Illness. Community Mental Health Journal, 56(6), 1044-1052. [More Information]
- Mizzi, A., Honey, A., Scanlan, J., Hancock, N. (2020). Parent strategies to support young people experiencing mental health problems in Australia: What is most helpful? Health and Social Care in the Community, 28(6), 2299-2311. [More Information]
- Hancock, N., Scanlan, J., Kightley, M., Harris, A. (2020). Recovery Assessment Scale-Domains and Stages: Measurement capacity, relevance, acceptability and feasibility of use with young people. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 14(2), 179-187. [More Information]
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2019
- Stewart, K., Hancock, N., Stancliffe, R. (2019). Factors related to hospital utilisation for people living with schizophrenia: Examining Allen’s Cognitive Level Scores, recommended supports and routinely collected variables. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 66(5), 591-602. [More Information]
- Wonders, L., Honey, A., Hancock, N. (2019). Family Inclusion in Mental Health Service Planning and Delivery: Consumers' Perspectives. Community Mental Health Journal, 55(2), 318-330. [More Information]
- Scanlan, J., Feder, K., Ennals, P., Hancock, N. (2019). Outcomes of an individual placement and support programme incorporating principles of the collaborative recovery model. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 66(4), 519-529. [More Information]
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2018
- Jessup, G., Bundy, A., Hancock, N., Broom, A. (2018). Being noticed for the way you are: Social inclusion and high school students with vision impairment. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 36(1), 90-103. [More Information]
- Schweizer, R., Honey, A., Hancock, N., Berry, B., Waks, S., Scanlan, J. (2018). Consumer-provider relationships in a care coordination model of service: consumer perspectives. Advances in Mental Health, 16(1), 88-100. [More Information]
- Wells, K., Scanlan, J., Gomez, L., Rutter, S., Hancock, N., Tuite, A., Ho, J., Jacek, S., Jones, A., Mehdi, H., et al (2018). Decision making and support available to individuals considering and undertaking electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): A qualitative, consumer-led study. BMC Psychiatry, 18(1). [More Information]
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2017
- Honey, A., Nugent, A., Hancock, N., Scanlan, J. (2017). "It's hard work, believe me!": Active efforts to optimise housing by people who live with mental illness and access housing assistance. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 52(4), 347-366. [More Information]
- Awram, R., Hancock, N., Honey, A. (2017). Balancing mothering and mental health recovery: The voices of mothers living with mental illness. Advances in Mental Health, 15(2), 147-160. [More Information]
- Nugent, A., Hancock, N., Honey, A. (2017). Developing and sustaining recovery-orientation in mental health practice: Experiences of occupational therapists. Occupational Therapy International, 2017, 1-9. [More Information]
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2016
- Smith-Merry, J., Gillespie, J., Hancock, N., Yen, I. (2016). Facilitating recovery in a complex setting: The role of Support Facilitators. The MHS Annual Mental Health Services Conference: 2015 TheMHS Conference: Translating Best Practice into Reality, Australia: TheMHS Learning Network Inc.
- Wayland, S., Smith-Merry, J., Kokany, A., Hancock, N. (2016). Identifying ways to broaden recovery narratives - the lived experience of mental health consumers of Western Sydney recovery services. TheMHS Conference on "People: Authenticity Starts in the Heart", Auckland: TheMHS Learning Network Inc.
- Jarman, V., Hancock, N., Scanlan, J. (2016). Maintaining my employment: Learning from people living and working with mental illness. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 79(11), 660-668. [More Information]
2015
- Honey, A., Coniglio, F., Hancock, N. (2015). Conceptualising wellbeing for young people living with mental illness. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 22(6), 278-287. [More Information]
- Honey, A., Coniglio, F., Hancock, N. (2015). Conceptualising wellbeing for young people living with mental illness. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 22(6), 272-276.
- Smith-Merry, J., Gillespie, J., Hancock, N., Yen, I. (2015). Doing mental health care integration: A qualitative study of a new work role. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 9(1), 1-14. [More Information]
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2014
- Smith-Merry, J., Gillespie, J., Hancock, N., Yen, I. (2014). Integrating care for chronic mental ill-health: the Partners in Recovery Western Sydney Study. International Journal of Integrated Care, 14(9), URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-116630.
- Honey, A., Alchin, S., Hancock, N. (2014). Knowing what to do and being able to do it: How mental health services influence the strategies parents use to support young people with mental illness. TheMHS Conference on "People: Authenticity Starts in the Heart", Auckland: TheMHS Learning Network Inc.
- Hancock, N., Cowles, C., Bateman, J., Maraz, S., Sacker, S. (2014). Meeting the physical health needs of people living with mental illness: Current practices within NSW community managed organisations and where to from here. Second World Congress on Integrated Care.
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2013
- Hancock, N., Bundy, A., Honey, A., Helich, S., Tamsett, S. (2013). Measuring the Later Stages of the Recovery Journey: Insights gained from Clubhouse Members. Community Mental Health Journal, 49(3), 323-330. [More Information]
- Honey, A., Hancock, N. (2013). Parenting a young adult with mental illness: tasks and actions. Occupational Therapy Mental Health Forum.
- Jessup, G., Bundy, A., Broom, A., Hancock, N. (2013). Sampling Social Experiences In School: Feasibility of Experience Sampling Methodology on an iPlatform. Journal of the South Pacific Educators in Vision Impairment, 6(1), 79-85.
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2012
- Coniglio, F., Honey, A., Hancock, N., Llewellyn, G. (2012). Indicators of well-being and the voice of young people living with mental illness: how do they compare? TheMHS 2012 Recovering Citizenship, Brookvale: Acorn Press.
- Coniglio, F., Honey, A., Hancock, N., LLewellyn, G. (2012). Indicators of well-being and the voices of young people living with mental illness: How do they compare? 22nd Annual TheMHS Conference, Sydney: The Mental Health Services Conference Inc. of Australia and New Zealand.
- Hancock, N., Bundy, A., Tamsett, S., McMahon, M. (2012). Participation of mental health consumers in research: Training addressed and reliability assessed. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 59(3), 218-224. [More Information]
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2011
- Hancock, N., McMahon, M. (2011). Demystifying research: training program for inclusive practice in research. Embedding collaborative research practice into a Clubhouse program. The Mental Health Services (TheMHS) International Conference 2008, Australia: The Mental Health Services.
- Hancock, N., Bundy, A., Honey, A., James, G., Tamsett, S. (2011). Improving measurement properties of the Recovery Assessment Scale with Rasch analysis. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65(6), e77-e85. [More Information]
- Hancock, N., Tamsett, S. (2011). Sharing the secret knowledge of research: training modules for members. 14th International Clubhouse Seminar 2007, United States: International Center for Clubhouse Development.
2010
- Marshall, S., Deane, F., Hancock, N. (2010). Increasing Research Familiarity Among Members of a Clubhouse for People With Mental Illness. Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling, 16(2), 119-125. [More Information]
- Scanlan, J., Hancock, N. (2010). Online discussions develop students' clinical reasoning skills during fieldwork. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 57(6), 401-408. [More Information]
- Coniglio, F., Hancock, N., Ellis, L. (2010). Peer support within Clubhouse: A grounded theory study. World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT) International Conference. World Federation of Occupational Therapists.
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2009
- Coniglio, F., Hancock, N., Ellis, L. (2009). Peer Support within Clubhouse: A grounded theory study. 19th annual TheMHS conference. The Mental Health Services.
- Coniglio, F., Hancock, N., Ellis, L. (2009). Peer Support Within Clubhouse: A Grounded Theory Study. Occupational Therapy in the Northern Territory - Australia Northern Territory Conference.
- Coniglio, F., Hancock, N., Ellis, L. (2009). Peer Support within Clubhouse: A grounded theory study. Inaugural Conference for OT Australia NSW-ACT 2009, Australia: OT Australia NSW.
2007
- Tamsett, S., McMahon, M., Hancock, N. (2007). Inclusive Practice in Mental Health Research. NSW NGO Mental Health Conference 2007, Australia: Mental Health Coordinating Council.
- Beltran, R., Scanlan, J., Hancock, N., Luckett, T. (2007). The effect of first year mental health fieldwork on attitudes of ocupational therapy students towards people with mental illness. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 54(1), 42-48. [More Information]
2006
- Hancock, N., Bundy, A., Waghorn, G. (2006). Collaborative practice in mental health research. Fifth Research Conference 2006. University of Sydney.
- Scanlan, J., McLoughlin, C., Hancock, N. (2006). Design and evaluation of an e-learning environment to support the development and refinement of clinical reasoning and decision-making. 23rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education ASCILITE 2006, Australia: Sydney University Press.
- Scanlan, J., Hancock, N. (2006). Web based academic support for students. WFOT 2006: OTs in action: local and global, Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney.
2005
- Scanlan, J., Hancock, N. (2005). Enhancing field education through the use of internet-based teaching tools (WebCT). Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Annual Conference - HERDSA 2005, Sydney: Institute for Teaching and Learning.
- Scanlan, J., Hancock, N. (2005). WebCT use in cliical education: its impact on the development of lifelong learners. EdHealth Conference 2005, Terrigal: College of Health Sciences.
Selected Grants
2024
- A hybrid-II implementation-effectiveness trial of a peer-supported self-management tool for young people in preparation for early intervention in psychosis service discharge (MY PREP-ED), Milton A, Glozier N, Harris A, Hancock N, Department of Health and Aged Care (Federal - administered by NHMRC)/MRFF CRI 2023 Clinician Researchers: Applied Research in Health
2023
- Rewarding Research 2024, Hancock N, Faculty of Medicine and Health/FMH Rewarding Research Success
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