Chris Stevenson (died 2014) was an author and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

mental health nursing Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is the appointed position of a nurse that specialises in mental health, and cares for people of all ages experiencing mental illnesses or distress. These include: neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophr ...

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

, where she was also head of the School of Nursing. She was appointed in 2005, having begun her career as a

psychiatric nurse Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is the appointed position of a nurse that specialises in mental health, and cares for people of all ages experiencing mental illnesses or distress. These include: neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophr ...

Career

Stevenson trained as a psychiatric nurse before completing a BA (Hons) in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

Sunderland Polytechnic The University of Sunderland is a public research university located in Sunderland in the North East of England. Its predecessor, Sunderland Technical College, was established as a municipal training college in 1901. It gained university status ...

. She then returned to nursing as a community psychiatric nurse, specialising in working with families. Whilst working as a nurse, she studied for an MSc in health and social research at the

University of Northumbria Northumbria University (legally the University of Northumbria at Newcastle) is a Public research university, public research university located in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, North East of England. It has been a university since 199 ...

, and for seven years she held a clinical

lectureship Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. ...

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

. She then became a reader in nursing at the

University of Teesside Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as ''Constantine Technical College'' in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally g ...

, and deputy director of the Teesside Centre for Rehabilitation Sciences. On her appointment to Dublin City University, she established a qualitative study into attempted

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

by young men in Ireland, noting that suicide is the most common cause of death in 15 to 24-year-old males in Ireland and that mental health nurses are currently not properly trained to deal with people with severe mental health issues, describing the problem as "professional avoidance in engaging meaningfully with the person." A further report in 2010 stressed the implications of the study for

suicide prevention Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public healt ...

strategies. The following year she was working for ParSons Dowd Psychological of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

, UK as a chartered

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

and

family therapist Family therapy (also referred to as family counseling, family systems therapy, marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy) is a branch of psychotherapy focused on family, families and couples in intimate relationships to nurture chang ...

, and still researching factors linked to suicide. She was later affiliated to the

University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

. Chris Stevenson died on 13 November 2014 at Legan, Co. Longford, in Ireland.Death notice of Chris STEVENSON
RIP.ie, 19 November 2014

Published works

Stevenson published the following books or chapters of books: *''Transcending Suicidality: Facilitating re-vitalizing worthiness'' (with E. Gordon and John R. Cutcliffe). In: John R. Cutcliffe et al. (Eds), ''Routledge International Handbook of Clinical Suicide Research''. Routledge, 2013. . *''Family Support: Growing the Family Support Network'' (with E. Gordon). In: P. Barker (Ed), ''Psychiatric and Mental Health nursing: The craft of caring'' (2nd Edition). London: Hodder Arnold, 2009. . * ''INTAR: The International Network Toward Alternatives and Recovery'' (together with Laurie Ahern & Peter Stastny). In Peter Stastny & Peter Lehmann (eds.), ''Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry'' (pp. 359–366). Berlin / Eugene / Shrewsbury: Peter Lehmann Publishing. (UK), (USA). (E-Book 2018) * ''INTAR – Das internationale Netzwerk für Alternativen und Recovery'' (together with Laurie Ahern & Peter Stastny). In Peter Lehmann & Peter Stastny (eds.), ''Statt Psychiatrie 2'' (pp. 377–385). Berlin / Eugene / Shrewsbury: Antipsychiatrieverlag. . (E-Book 2018) *''Care of the Suicidal Person'',

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

, 2006. *''Patient and Person: Empowering Interpersonal Relations in Nursing'', Elsevier, 2004. *''The Construction of Power and Authority in Psychiatry.'' Oxford,

Butterworth-Heinemann Butterworth–Heinemann is a British publishing company specialised in professional information and learning materials for higher education and professional training, in printed and electronic forms. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of Hei ...

, 2000. *''Integrating Perspectives on Health'',

Open University Press McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

, 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Chris Year of birth missing Alumni of the University of Sunderland Alumni of Northumbria University Academics of Newcastle University Academics of Teesside University Academics of Dublin City University English expatriates in Ireland English nurses Psychiatric nurses Medical educators British women academics 2014 deaths