A postdoctoral researcher and Keele alumna has received a prestigious award from an academic society for her PhD completed at Keele University.

Dr Isabela Troya, who completed her PhD in Keele’s School of Primary, Community and Social Care, has been awarded the joint prize for “PhD of the year” by the Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC).

Dr Troya’s PhD research was focused on self-harm in older people, with a view to understanding patients’ motivations to self-harm, the barriers they faced in accessing care, and the role that different support sources play in helping these patients.

Dr Troya, who now works as a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Public Health, University College Cork and the National Suicide Research Foundation Ireland said: “It is a privilege to have been awarded joint PhD prize of the year by such a prestigious institution as the Society for Academic Primary Care.

“I am pleased to know my PhD research, conducted at Keele University, has been able to contribute to such an important topic, having implications for clinical practice, in particular primary care clinicians who are frequently in contact with older adults.”

Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham, Professor of General Practice Research, Chair of SAPC, and Dr Troya’s PhD supervisor added: “Isabela’s PhD was in an important, yet under-researched, area. The judging panel felt that Isabela demonstrated excellent patient and public involvement in her PhD and ensured that her findings were disseminated to a lay audience, as well as achieving some excellent publications.”