Speakers

Dr Elliot Bell

Elliot is a practicing clinical psychologist and senior lecturer at the Rehabilitation Teaching and Research Unit (RTRU) and the Department of Psychological Medicine. He completed his PhD at the University of Otago, Wellington, on the measurement of theory of mind in schizophrenia, and has gone on to develop research interests in cognitive behaviour therapies, mental health rehabilitation, intellectual disability, forensic rehabilitation, resilience, and psychological factors in the rehabilitation of physical health conditions. Within the RTRU, Elliot supervises graduate research students, and convenes and teaches the course REHB 714 Personal and Psychological Factors in Rehabilitation. 

Within the Department of Psychological Medicine, Elliot teaches cognitive behaviour therapies and other mental health topics to psychiatry registrars and undergraduate medical students, supervises PhD candidates, and is the Postgraduate Research Students Convener. With regard to his clinical work, Elliot’s background is in public mental health services, and he currently works part-time as a private practitioner. His current clinical interests include: cognitive behaviour therapy, depression, anxiety, trauma, and positive psychology. Elliot is a Fellow of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (NZCCP), past vice-president of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists, and is a former member of the New Zealand Psychologists Registration Board. He is also actively involved in a number of community service initiatives.

Dr Fi Graham

Dr Fi Graham teaches interprofessional postgraduate rehabilitation, with a particular focus on rehabilitation with children and families, telehealth and implementation of evidence-based best practice. Her research experiences include a wide range of methods spanning qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods and realist methods. She has a particular interest in autonomy supportive therapist-client interactions, often framed as coaching interventions.

Dr Hemakumar Devan

Dr Hemakumar Devan (he/him) is a clinical academic in pain management, working as a Lecturer at the Rehabilitation Teaching and Research Unit, University of Otago and as a Pain Management Physiotherapist at the Wellington Regional Pain Service. With equity and valuing lived experience expertise at the centre, Dr Devan’s research programme aims to foster self-management support to empower people with persistent pain and their whānau (family and significant others). He currently holds a HRC Health Delivery Career Development Award to co-develop a community-led pain support programme for Māori whānau with pain. Strategically, his goal is to address health inequities and improve health outcomes for people with persistent pain and their whānau.

In the past five years, Dr Devan has secured over $1.4M in funding, published over 35 peer-reviewed articles, and delivered 50+ national and international presentations in pain management. He is a steering committee member of the IASP Early Career Leaders Presidential Task Force, council member of the New Zealand Pain Society and the Deputy Director of Pain@Otago research theme. Dr Devan is a passionate science communicator often presenting his work in pain conferences, blogs and in social media (@HemDevan).

Jean Hay-Smith

Jean Hay-Smith is a rehabilitation teacher and researcher, ex-women’s health physiotherapist, and ‘earth-mother’. Through teaching and research she inspires others to make changes in rehabilitation process to achieve equity in access, experience and outcome. Jean researches and teaches on topics as diverse as collaborative practice, pelvic floor muscle training, and review methodologies.

Dr Rachelle Martin

Dr Rachelle Martin currently has two roles. She works as a lecturer at the Rehabilitation Teaching and Research Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington, and she also leads clinical research and knowledge translation at the Burwood Academy Trust (BAT) based in Christchurch. Rachelle aims to develop equitable health-optimising policies and programmes, enabling people who experience disability to live well across their lifespan.

She is committed to participatory methods that listen to and enhance the voices of disabled people, ensuring their perspectives influence health-related policy, programme and service delivery decisions, and work in partnership with Māori researchers to ensure kaupapa Māori responsiveness. She often uses realist review, research or evaluation methods to unpack the ‘black box’ of complex health programmes, by developing a theoretically based understanding of "What works for who, in which contexts, to what extent, and how?" Rachelle’s clinical background (>20 years) is working as a physiotherapist in hospital and community settings, principally alongside people with neurological impairments.