Allen Higgins
Biographic Data
| ID | 243879 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Allen Higgins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Allen |
| FAMILY NAME | Higgins |
| SIGNATURE | HIGGINS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Trinity College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0631-1884 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland: The positive aspects of being a young person from within a sexual and gender minority community
A positive psychology approach to inquiry offers a way of understanding LGBTQI+ lives from a generative and prosocial perspective. This paper presents findings from the Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland study (n = 2,806). It focusses on self-reported positive aspects of being LGBTQI+ as presented in the responses of 14–25 year old participants (n = 1,054) to an open text question that asked what they liked most about being LGBTQI+. A qualitative descripti…
Relationship Between Exposure to Anti‐LGBTQI+ Hate Speech and LGBTQI+ People’s Wellbeing and Mental Health: The Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland Study
Anti‐LGBTQI+ hate speech, much of which is transmitted through media platforms, is a growing problem internationally and also in Ireland. Using data from a national online survey ( n = 2806) of the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQI+ participants aged 14+ years in the Republic of Ireland (RoI), this paper examines the proportion of LGBTQI+ participants exposed to anti‐LGBTQI+ hate speech online and in public media, and the associations between…
‘I Wish It Were More Often Told to People Before They Are Prescribed These Medications How Hard It Is to Get Off Them’: A Qualitative Descriptive Analysis of Free‐Text Responses to a Survey on Reducin…
INTRODUCTION: Despite significant increases in the prescribing of psychiatric medication in recent years, many uncertainties exist regarding the process of reducing and stopping these medications. A James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) study was conducted to identify the top 10 research priorities on reducing and stopping psychiatric medication. As part of the PSP study, an online survey was conducted, which asked respondents to…
Housing difficulties among participants in the Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland study
The gift of peer understanding and suicide bereavement support groups: A qualitative study
There is a growing recognition and need for more studies on groups practices and processes to develop greater insight into the helpful elements that may be distinctive to bereavement peer support groups for traumatic loss such as, suicide. Using a qualitative descriptive design, focus groups and individual interviews were conducted online and face-to-face with a purposive sample of 27 participants in Ireland and in Denmark, who were bereaved by s…
Women's perspectives on resilience and research on resilience in motherhood: A qualitative study
PURPOSE: Definitional perspectives and operational approaches to the concept of resilience vary within the literature; however, little is known of women's opinions on current resilience research, or the philosophical and methodological directions women believe such research should take. This research explored women's perspectives on resilience research in the perinatal period and early motherhood and sought their opinions on the ways in which the…
Operationalising a Recovery-Oriented Support and Information Programme Online: The Eolas Programme
Evidence demonstrates that psychoeducation interventions have clinical and recovery-related benefits for people experiencing psychosis and their family members. The EOLAS programmes are one example of recovery-oriented psychoeducation programmes for psychosis. They differ from other programmes in that they are co-designed and co-facilitated (peer and clinician) group programmes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, EOLAS went online using a videoconfere…
Learning to deliver LGBT+ aged care: Exploring and documenting best practices in professional and vocational education through the World Café method
Substantial evidence on the adverse impact of ageing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) populations through the lack of inclusive care services has highlighted the need for education and training of the health and social care workforce to enhance their skills, knowledge and capabilities in this area. We describe a cross-national collaboration across four European Union countries called BEING ME. This collaboration examined the curr…
Training programmes for practitioners in sexual health promotion: An integrative literature review of evaluations
This paper reports on findings from an integrative literature review of evaluation studies undertaken into sexual health promotion preparation programmes aimed at professionals with a sexual health promotion remit. Using a pre-defined search strategy, inclusion criteria and PRISMA guidelines, databases were systematically searched. Studies were screened and those included were quality assessed. Twenty-seven relevant studies were identified. Thema…
A mixed methods study examining perceptions by service-users of their involuntary admission in relation to levels of insight
BACKGROUND: Poor insight is associated with negative attitudes to involuntary admission and care in qualitative studies. AIMS: The current paper aims to examine and compare retrospective qualitative perceptions of service-users in relation to their involuntary admission with their levels of clinical insight, using a mixed methods approach. METHODS: Forty two participants were assessed 3 months after the revocation of their involuntary admission. …
The Spaces of Peer-Led Support Groups for Suicide Bereaved in Denmark and the Republic of Ireland: A Focus Group Study
Research has shown that people bereaved by suicide have an increased risk of mental health problems, suicidality and associated stigma, as well as higher rates of sick leave and increased rates of receiving disability pensions. Peer-led suicide bereavement support groups are perceived to enhance people's recovery by enabling shared experiences with others who are bereaved in similar circumstances. The aim of the research was to explore the viewpo…
Scoping Review of Peer-Led Support for People Bereaved by Suicide
Suicide bereavement support groups are a widely available format of postvention service. Although other reviews have addressed peer-led bereavement interventions, no review has focused specifically on peer-led support for people bereaved by suicide. Informed by a framework for undertaking scoping reviews, we conducted a systematic review according to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Searches conducted in May 2021 of peer-reviewed literature in MEDLINE (EBS…
Meaning in Life in Long-Term Recovery in First-Episode Psychosis: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Background: Meaning in Life (MIL) is a central aspect of service user defined personal recovery in mental health. It is unclear whether current knowledge regarding MIL is applicable to the lives of those who have experienced psychosis. As it was not possible to locate any study examining service user perspectives on MIL in first-episode psychosis (FEP), conducting in-depth qualitative research in this area offers an opportunity to develop a conce…
An embodied distress: African asylum seekers' experiences of mental health difficulties while awaiting an asylum outcome in Ireland
The mental health of asylum seekers has attracted significant interest and examination. Quantitative studies have consistently indicated that asylum seekers experience mental distress at a higher rate than both host populations and their refugee counterparts. Qualitative insight into asylum seekers' embodied experience of mental distress is limited. This qualitative narrative study aimed to explore African asylum seekers' everyday embodied experi…
An exploration of happiness within the Irish LGBTI community
This paper explores factors which contribute to happiness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals as part of the largest study to date of mental health in the LGBTI community in the Republic of Ireland (LGBTIreland study). This mixed methods study informed by minority stress theory, contained an online survey (n = 2,264) which explored various aspects of mental health and distress, but also the extent and experi…
Erosion of Meaning in Life: African Asylum Seekers’ Experiences of Seeking Asylum in Ireland
The narratives of 16 African asylum seekers indicated that the asylum system in Ireland eroded the various sources from which they could derive meaning in life (MIL). The endurance of a protracted asylum process, prohibition from entering the labour force and residence in institutionalized accommodation appeared to erode asylum seekers’ sense of self-efficacy, purpose, worth, value and belonging. Experiencing a cumulative erosion of all derivatio…
Code talk' in soft work
The performance of writing software is an under-studied phenomenon in Information Systems (IS) studies. Key aspects of the process of software development - the practice of writing code, coding texts collectively, maintaining and extending source code - are too often glossed or treated unproblematically as technical `givens' rather than social accomplishments. Although ethnographic methods are now considered a valid mode of study in the software …
Erosion of Meaning in Life: African Asylum Seekers’ Experiences of Seeking Asylum in Ireland
The narratives of 16 African asylum seekers indicated that the asylum system in Ireland eroded the various sources from which they could derive meaning in life (MIL). The endurance of a protracted asylum process, prohibition from entering the labour force and residence in institutionalized accommodation appeared to erode asylum seekers’ sense of self-efficacy, purpose, worth, value and belonging. Experiencing a cumulative erosion of all derivatio…
An embodied distress: African asylum seekers' experiences of mental health difficulties while awaiting an asylum outcome in Ireland
The mental health of asylum seekers has attracted significant interest and examination. Quantitative studies have consistently indicated that asylum seekers experience mental distress at a higher rate than both host populations and their refugee counterparts. Qualitative insight into asylum seekers' embodied experience of mental distress is limited. This qualitative narrative study aimed to explore African asylum seekers' everyday embodied experi…
Code talk' in soft work
The performance of writing software is an under-studied phenomenon in Information Systems (IS) studies. Key aspects of the process of software development - the practice of writing code, coding texts collectively, maintaining and extending source code - are too often glossed or treated unproblematically as technical `givens' rather than social accomplishments. Although ethnographic methods are now considered a valid mode of study in the software …
Learning to deliver LGBT+ aged care: Exploring and documenting best practices in professional and vocational education through the World Café method
Substantial evidence on the adverse impact of ageing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) populations through the lack of inclusive care services has highlighted the need for education and training of the health and social care workforce to enhance their skills, knowledge and capabilities in this area. We describe a cross-national collaboration across four European Union countries called BEING ME. This collaboration examined the curr…
Code talk' in soft work
The performance of writing software is an under-studied phenomenon in Information Systems (IS) studies. Key aspects of the process of software development - the practice of writing code, coding texts collectively, maintaining and extending source code - are too often glossed or treated unproblematically as technical `givens' rather than social accomplishments. Although ethnographic methods are now considered a valid mode of study in the software …
Erosion of Meaning in Life: African Asylum Seekers’ Experiences of Seeking Asylum in Ireland
The narratives of 16 African asylum seekers indicated that the asylum system in Ireland eroded the various sources from which they could derive meaning in life (MIL). The endurance of a protracted asylum process, prohibition from entering the labour force and residence in institutionalized accommodation appeared to erode asylum seekers’ sense of self-efficacy, purpose, worth, value and belonging. Experiencing a cumulative erosion of all derivatio…
An exploration of happiness within the Irish LGBTI community
This paper explores factors which contribute to happiness among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals as part of the largest study to date of mental health in the LGBTI community in the Republic of Ireland (LGBTIreland study). This mixed methods study informed by minority stress theory, contained an online survey (n = 2,264) which explored various aspects of mental health and distress, but also the extent and experi…
Meaning in Life in Long-Term Recovery in First-Episode Psychosis: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Background: Meaning in Life (MIL) is a central aspect of service user defined personal recovery in mental health. It is unclear whether current knowledge regarding MIL is applicable to the lives of those who have experienced psychosis. As it was not possible to locate any study examining service user perspectives on MIL in first-episode psychosis (FEP), conducting in-depth qualitative research in this area offers an opportunity to develop a conce…
An embodied distress: African asylum seekers' experiences of mental health difficulties while awaiting an asylum outcome in Ireland
The mental health of asylum seekers has attracted significant interest and examination. Quantitative studies have consistently indicated that asylum seekers experience mental distress at a higher rate than both host populations and their refugee counterparts. Qualitative insight into asylum seekers' embodied experience of mental distress is limited. This qualitative narrative study aimed to explore African asylum seekers' everyday embodied experi…
Training programmes for practitioners in sexual health promotion: An integrative literature review of evaluations
This paper reports on findings from an integrative literature review of evaluation studies undertaken into sexual health promotion preparation programmes aimed at professionals with a sexual health promotion remit. Using a pre-defined search strategy, inclusion criteria and PRISMA guidelines, databases were systematically searched. Studies were screened and those included were quality assessed. Twenty-seven relevant studies were identified. Thema…
A mixed methods study examining perceptions by service-users of their involuntary admission in relation to levels of insight
BACKGROUND: Poor insight is associated with negative attitudes to involuntary admission and care in qualitative studies. AIMS: The current paper aims to examine and compare retrospective qualitative perceptions of service-users in relation to their involuntary admission with their levels of clinical insight, using a mixed methods approach. METHODS: Forty two participants were assessed 3 months after the revocation of their involuntary admission. …
The Spaces of Peer-Led Support Groups for Suicide Bereaved in Denmark and the Republic of Ireland: A Focus Group Study
Research has shown that people bereaved by suicide have an increased risk of mental health problems, suicidality and associated stigma, as well as higher rates of sick leave and increased rates of receiving disability pensions. Peer-led suicide bereavement support groups are perceived to enhance people's recovery by enabling shared experiences with others who are bereaved in similar circumstances. The aim of the research was to explore the viewpo…
Scoping Review of Peer-Led Support for People Bereaved by Suicide
Suicide bereavement support groups are a widely available format of postvention service. Although other reviews have addressed peer-led bereavement interventions, no review has focused specifically on peer-led support for people bereaved by suicide. Informed by a framework for undertaking scoping reviews, we conducted a systematic review according to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Searches conducted in May 2021 of peer-reviewed literature in MEDLINE (EBS…
Women's perspectives on resilience and research on resilience in motherhood: A qualitative study
PURPOSE: Definitional perspectives and operational approaches to the concept of resilience vary within the literature; however, little is known of women's opinions on current resilience research, or the philosophical and methodological directions women believe such research should take. This research explored women's perspectives on resilience research in the perinatal period and early motherhood and sought their opinions on the ways in which the…
Operationalising a Recovery-Oriented Support and Information Programme Online: The Eolas Programme
Evidence demonstrates that psychoeducation interventions have clinical and recovery-related benefits for people experiencing psychosis and their family members. The EOLAS programmes are one example of recovery-oriented psychoeducation programmes for psychosis. They differ from other programmes in that they are co-designed and co-facilitated (peer and clinician) group programmes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, EOLAS went online using a videoconfere…
Learning to deliver LGBT+ aged care: Exploring and documenting best practices in professional and vocational education through the World Café method
Substantial evidence on the adverse impact of ageing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) populations through the lack of inclusive care services has highlighted the need for education and training of the health and social care workforce to enhance their skills, knowledge and capabilities in this area. We describe a cross-national collaboration across four European Union countries called BEING ME. This collaboration examined the curr…
The gift of peer understanding and suicide bereavement support groups: A qualitative study
There is a growing recognition and need for more studies on groups practices and processes to develop greater insight into the helpful elements that may be distinctive to bereavement peer support groups for traumatic loss such as, suicide. Using a qualitative descriptive design, focus groups and individual interviews were conducted online and face-to-face with a purposive sample of 27 participants in Ireland and in Denmark, who were bereaved by s…
‘I Wish It Were More Often Told to People Before They Are Prescribed These Medications How Hard It Is to Get Off Them’: A Qualitative Descriptive Analysis of Free‐Text Responses to a Survey on Reducin…
INTRODUCTION: Despite significant increases in the prescribing of psychiatric medication in recent years, many uncertainties exist regarding the process of reducing and stopping these medications. A James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) study was conducted to identify the top 10 research priorities on reducing and stopping psychiatric medication. As part of the PSP study, an online survey was conducted, which asked respondents to…
Housing difficulties among participants in the Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland study
Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland: The positive aspects of being a young person from within a sexual and gender minority community
A positive psychology approach to inquiry offers a way of understanding LGBTQI+ lives from a generative and prosocial perspective. This paper presents findings from the Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland study (n = 2,806). It focusses on self-reported positive aspects of being LGBTQI+ as presented in the responses of 14–25 year old participants (n = 1,054) to an open text question that asked what they liked most about being LGBTQI+. A qualitative descripti…
Relationship Between Exposure to Anti‐LGBTQI+ Hate Speech and LGBTQI+ People’s Wellbeing and Mental Health: The Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland Study
Anti‐LGBTQI+ hate speech, much of which is transmitted through media platforms, is a growing problem internationally and also in Ireland. Using data from a national online survey ( n = 2806) of the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQI+ participants aged 14+ years in the Republic of Ireland (RoI), this paper examines the proportion of LGBTQI+ participants exposed to anti‐LGBTQI+ hate speech online and in public media, and the associations between…
Psychology (13 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Psychiatry (7 works) · Qualitative research (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Mental health (6 works) · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy (5 works) · Migration, Health and Trauma (5 works)