Amy Kennedy McEwan
PhD Student
School of Health and Life Sciences
Amy graduated with a BA (Hons) in Sociology and Psychology from UWS in 2015 and was awarded the Court Medal. In September of the same year, Amy went on to study an MSc in Contemporary Drug and Alcohol Studies and completed this in 2016. Amy has worked as a Survey Assistant on the Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative (NESI) Survey, interviewing over 500 individuals. Amy is a member of the Substance Use and Misuse Research Group at GCU and the Drug Research Network Scotland.
Amy’s PhD is focussing on hepatitis C reinfection amongst people who inject drugs (PWID). PWID are one of Scotland’s most vulnerable groups and blood-borne viruses (BBVs) can have detrimental effects on an individual’s physical and mental health. New direct-acting antiviral treatments have huge success rates in curing hepatitis C, yet cases of reinfection amongst the PWID community continue to emerge. The study will aim to understand hepatitis C reinfection amongst PWID in Scotland utilising qualitative methods.