Peter Hillen
peter hillen

Dr Peter Hillen

Lecturer

 0131 455 2715

  P.Hillen@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

Peter Hillen is a Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Care teaching on a range of programmes including BSc Nursing (Singapore), Masters in Public Health and Masters in Social Work. He specialises in teaching substance use (drugs and alcohol), research skills (qualitative & mixed methods), and spirituality in health and social care. Peter is the lead for Knowledge Exchange, Innovation and Enterprise in the School of Health and Social Care.

Peter is an experienced researcher with expertise in substance use and harm reduction. He has a PhD in Social Work which explored peoples' experiences of recovery from heroin and alcohol problems, focusing on spiritual, religious and existential beliefs.

Peter began as a Research Fellow at ENU on a pilot study of Behavioural Couples Therapy for opioid dependent parents. He was the Principal Investigator on the award winning evaluation of Police Scotland's naloxone pilot. This research led to a mandate that all police officers in Scotland should carry naloxone - a first aid intervention that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. Scotland is the only country in the world where all officers carry naloxone.

Peter has been involved in other studies, including an evaluation of a drug and alcohol Social Work service and an exploration of the experiences of Black and minority ethnic Social Work students.

School

Research Groups

Research Areas

Esteem

Conference Organising Activity

  • Behavioural Couples Therapy (BCT) for opioid-dependent parents: Findings from research and next steps.

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • “Highly commended” Research project of the year: Arts, humanities and social sciences,” Times Higher Education Awards 2024
  • "Highly Commended" - Research Project of the Year, Herald Higher Education Awards 2024
  • Finalist - Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards
  • Fellow of the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association
  • Scottish Institute for Policing Research Impact Award. Finalist and runner up
  • Fellow of The Higher Education Academy

 

Invited Speaker

  • Naloxone in the Justice System - Scottish Health in Custody Network Webinar
  • Drugs, Stigma and Emergency Services - Drugs Research Network Scotland Webinar
  • Naloxone In Police Scotland: Drugs Research Network Scotland - end of phase 2 conference.
  • Naloxone in Police Scotland: Drugs Deaths Taskforce Symposium
  • Naloxone in Police Scotland: Drug Deaths Taskforce Roundtable

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • SEDA (Staff Educational and Development Association) recognised teacher

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • “I’m not going to leave someone to die”: A policing response to Scotland’s drugs death crisis. Edinburgh Sceptics talk

 

Reviewing

  • Harm Reduction Journal

 

Filter by

Date


28 results

Community stakeholders’ perceptions of the training, carriage and administration of naloxone by police in Scotland. (HR25)

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P. (2025, April)
Community stakeholders’ perceptions of the training, carriage and administration of naloxone by police in Scotland. (HR25). Presented at HR25: Harm Reducution International Conference 2025, Bogota, Columbia
Background Scotland has been called, “Europe’s drugs deaths capital”. In 2020 in Scotland, drug-related deaths (DRD) were at an all-time high. There were 1,339 DRD, a rate 3...

Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland.

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., Speakman, E., Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Murray, J., Jamieson, M., Aston, E., & McAuley, A. (2024, December)
Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland. Presented at Naloxone in the Justice System, Scottish Health in Custody Network Webinar, Online

Influence social change with your research by building relationships

Newspaper / Magazine
Hillen, P., & Heyman, I. (2024)
Influence social change with your research by building relationships
Invited submission following recognition at THE awards 2024 Researchers from Edinburgh Napier University needed to form relationships with a range of people when evaluating P...

“I’m not going to leave someone to die”: A policing response to Scotland’s drugs death crisis

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., & Heyman, I. (2024, November)
“I’m not going to leave someone to die”: A policing response to Scotland’s drugs death crisis. Presented at Edinburgh Sceptics, Edinburgh

Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., Speakman, E., Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Murray, J., Jamieson, M., Aston, E., & McAuley, A. (2024, September)
Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland. Presented at Policing, Public Health and Vulnerable People - Scottish Institute of Policing Research, Edinburgh

Police officer knowledge of and attitudes to opioid overdose and naloxone administration: an evaluation of police training in Scotland

Journal Article
Hillen, P., Speakman, E. M., Jamieson, M., Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Murray, J., Aston, E. V., & McAuley, A. (2025)
Police officer knowledge of and attitudes to opioid overdose and naloxone administration: an evaluation of police training in Scotland. Policing and Society, 35(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2024.2367142
In the context of escalating drug-related deaths, during 2021 Police Scotland implemented a pilot project incorporating naloxone training to test the carriage and administrati...

Police officer’s perspectives of people who use drugs: compassion or stigma? Evidence from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot

Presentation / Conference
Hillen, P., Heyman, I., Dougall, N., Murray, J., Aston, E., Jamieson, M., …McAuley, A. (2024, March)
Police officer’s perspectives of people who use drugs: compassion or stigma? Evidence from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot. Presented at Drugs Research Network Webinar: ‘Drugs, Stigma and Emergency Services’, Online
This presentation explored selected quantitative and qualitative data from an evaluation of Police Scotland’s naloxone pilot. The data indicated that police officers in Scotla...

Naloxone In Police Scotland - June 2023 update

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P. (2023, June)
Naloxone In Police Scotland - June 2023 update. Presented at Drugs Research Network Scotland - end of phase 2 conference, Glasgow
This presentation describes the independent findings of an evaluation of a Police Scotland test of change (pilot) of the carriage and administration of naloxone as an emergenc...

Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., Speakman, E., Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Murray, J., Jamieson, M., Aston, E., & McAuley, A. (2023, June)
Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland. Presented at DRNS End of Phase Showcase 2023, Glasgow

Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Hillen, P., Speakman, E., Dougall, N., Heyman, I., Murray, J., Jamieson, M., Aston, E., & McAuley, A. (2023, May)
Evaluating the training, carriage and administration of naloxone in Police Scotland. Presented at European Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH) 2023, Umeå, Sweden

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