Sarah Lyons: Learning and Teaching Fellowship Profile

Background:

I am a qualified and currently registered professional Social Worker.  I have a background in social work with adult service users, predominantly in the provision of mental health services, and have worked in the mental health field in a variety of settings and positions for the past 20 years.  Roles within this field have included: responsibility for specialist mental health service design for a city-wide perinatal mental health service;  service development/service design for mental health and learning disabilities services;  design and development of community based  supported living services for adults with learning disabilities and adults with mental health difficulties;  design and development of service provision for adults with a forensic mental health history; management of specialist mental health services/staff teams.

I have contributed to a range of projects concerned with mental health & well being and social/health care provision locally and regionally, including: process mapping for integrated health/social care service provision, consultative processes for specialist mental health service provision and acting as a panel member of the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal & Child Deaths.

I combined my ‘professional’ work with lecturing when I first came to Edge Hill as an Associate Lecturer in 2003, taking up a full time post in 2007.   

I continue to have active involvement in forums for mental health, and women’s mental health.

Academic & Research Interests:

• The development of Teaching & Learning mechanisms in Social Work Education.
• Mental health and well being of students in higher education.

Fellowship Foci for 2010-11:

• Development of a newly designed learning tool designed to optimize learning for students studying on the BA Social Work programme.  The ‘Phased Case-Study’  tool was specifically designed as part of a commitment to the development of creative learning structures on the newly running programme, and was conceived as a mechanism to serve the dual purpose of developing practices to enable students to consolidate learning across all modules in the programme, at the same time as embedding the participation of service users and carers into social work education. Develop of  the utilisation of this tool to now focus on :
  • The specific engagement of first & second year students, in different roles - second year students to act as ‘co-facilitators’ of case-study discussion groups. 
  • Measurement of the impact of the Phased Case-Study tool in terms of its effectiveness as a ‘preparation for practice’ tool. 
  • Increasing the involvement of Social Work students with the Service User and Carer group that meets to develop the different phases of the case study. 
  • Developing the collaborative experience between students from the Social Work BA, and students from Performing Arts. 

  Design/Implementation of a specific Team Based Learning approach to teaching on a third year module on the Social Work BA.  This learning framework will take the form of structured Peer Group Supervision, and will provide the basis for a third year module on the BA Social Work.  The focus will be on collaborative team work, engaging students in solution focused activity and active reflection on their own performance as ‘trainee’ practitioners.  Use of this approach will enable an emphasis on ‘concept application’ rather than mere knowledge acquisition, and will promote learning in self-managed teams.  The notion of teamwork will be of key importance, and will be bolstered with an emphasis on team accountability and responsibility.

  Collaborative work relating to mental health and well being of students in higher education. Collaborative work with external colleague located in Public Health in a local Primary Care Trust to continue, with specific reference to student satisfaction, retention, and the student experience in general.  Focus to be on the establishment of links for collaborative activity with other HEIs in the Liverpool area, for the purpose of knowledge transfer/research exchange on the subject of student mental health and well being.

Other 'Academic' Information:

Assessor for Social Work Education - The International Journal.

Contact:

E: lyonss@edgehill.ac.uk

T: 01695 584616