Rebecca McPhillips is a Research Fellow at Social Care and Society, in the Division of Nursing, Midwivery and Social Work. 

Her research interests are around mental health, particularly complex mental health difficulties and physical comorbidity, and attitudes and stigma towards mental health conditions. 

She is currently in receipt of an NIHR Pre-Application award and is developing work on complex mental health difficulties and physical healthcare in the context of UK primary care.

Rebecca has extensive experience of qualitative research methods and is interested in novel approaches to qualitative data collection and analysis and how these can be used to better engage with people underserved by research. 

She has experience of working with patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) groups and representatives in a number of research contexts and is committed to enhancing the quality, relevance, accountability and transparency of research through PPIE activities. 

Rebecca is an NIHR Research Support Service advisor and supervises students undertaking MA Social Work and PhD students. 

Rebecca graduated from the University of Manchester in 2005 with a First Class Honours degree in Sociology. She completed a PhD in the psychology of health, language and communication and medical sociology at the University of Manchester in 2014. 

Following her PhD, Rebecca worked as a Senior Qualitative Research Assistant on the NIHR PATHWAY Programme Grant, which comprised a pilot and randomised controlled trial of a psychological intervention, Group Metacognitive Therapy, and a feasibility trial of Home-Based Metacognitive Therapy for depressed and/or anxious cardiac rehabilitation patients. Rebecca went on to become PATHWAY Programme Manager, overseeing the entire Programme. 

Since 2018 Rebecca has worked as a Research Fellow at Social Care and Society, University of Manchester. In this role Rebecca has worked on various projects. The GCRF South Asia Self-Harm Initiative (SASHI), a collaboration between researchers in South Asia and the UK, with the purpose of finding effective responses to self-harm and suicide by building research infrastructure and surveillance systems. The NIHR SECURE project, on which she was Co-Investigator, aimed to understand the Greater Manchester social care workforce response to COVID-19.

Rebecca was Principal Investigator of the NIHR 'Three Schools' project, 'Excluded from Services at the point of a Mental Health Crisis', which aimed to investigate the characteristics of people who approach statutory services for support during a mental health crisis but do not receive support and the reasons for this. Findings indicated that for people with a diagnosis 'personality disorder' or 'complex emotional needs', this negatively impacts both their access to, and experiences of, mental and physical healthcare.

Rebecca is currently in receipt of an NIHR Pre-Development award, to develop research that aims to improve physical healthcare for people diagnosed with 'personality disorder' or 'complex emotional needs'. 

Qualitative research methods

Realist synthesis and evaluation 

Randomised controlled trials 

Evidence synthesis - systematic and scoping reviews

Patient and Public Invovlement and Engagement (PPIE)

Complex mental health difficulties 

Mental and physical multimorbidity

Qualitative research methods

Attitudes and stigma in mental health 

PhD Psychology, University of Manchester, 2014

MSc Sociological Research Methods and Statistics, University of Manchester, 2007

BSoc.Sci Sociology, First Class, winner of Baron Boulos Memorial Prize for Social Research, University of Manchester, 2005

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership of the British Psychological Society (via special case route)

Social Care and Society Executive Group Member 

University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee Member 

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester Athena Swan Committee Member (2018 – 2022)

Hannah Simpson, ‘Diagnosis of ‘Personality Disorder’ in General Practice’ (DClin), University of Manchester, Lead Supervisor, October 2023 – July 2026.

Bethany Warwick, ‘Exploring Experiences of Mental Health Crisis Care: Lived Experience and the Response of Social Workers and Police Officers, University of Manchester, Lead Supervisor, April 2023 – September 2026.

Parvathy Ramesh – Gender and Self-Harm in India, Co-Supervisor, October 2020 – October 2024.

David Wood - Patient Safety in Mental Health Care NHS Trusts in England, Co-Supervisor, September 2019 – December 2023.