John Bailey

I have a background in psychology and have worked as a researcher in forensic mental health services. I began working for Glyndwr University on the Deaths Involving Alcohol (DIAL) project in 2010 with Professors Poole and Robinson. I joined the Bangor School of Social Sciences in July 2012. Since that time I has been working alongside Prof Poole on problems associated with opioid medication prescribed for chronic pain. In collaboration with various NHS healthcare staff, a number of projects have been developed examining.

• Identifying patients with long-term, high-dose opioid medication (LTHDOM) use in primary care and measuring their prevalence.
• Factors involved in the development of LTHDOM use.
• The experiences of patients and their family members of LTHDOM.
• The effects of LTHDOM use on patient functioning.
• Interventions to reduce LTHDOM use.
• GPs’ experiences of prescribing opioid medication for chronic pain.
• The development of interventions to facilitate the control and reduction of opioid medication prescribing in primary care.
• The prescription and use of high dose opioids in palliative care.

I am also involved in other research examining dependency-forming medication and rational prescribing in prison and interventions with users of new psychoactive substances.

I served as vice chair of the University CBLESS research ethics committee and set up and chaired the School of Social Sciences research ethics subcommittee. I became a member of the School of Health Sciences research ethics committee when CFMHAS moved to that school in the summer of 2018.

I am regularly involved in a number of knowledge exchange activities with healthcare staff in the Local Health Board.

Research interests:

Opioid drugs; chronic pain; the physiological and psychological effects of long-term opioid medication use; the lived experience of patients and their families of using high doses of opioid medication; the prescribing of opioid medication, its control and reduction; research ethics.