Renan graduated in Psychology at the University of Brasilia (Brazil). He was awarded a Master of Science in Clinical Psychology and Culture by the University of Brasilia (Brazil), studying suicide behaviour among elderly. Recently, Renan was awarded his PhD by the University of Otago (New Zealand). His thesis is titled "The Experience of Occupational Exposure to Suicide Among Police and Paramedics in New Zealand". This research utilised Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to understand how first responders experience working with suicide calls/suicide deaths in the context of NZ. Renan is now a Research Fellow under the guidance of Prof. Cherie Armour, working on the project about Mental Health of veterans and their families in Northern Ireland. His research interests are around suicide prevention, mental health, critical psychology/suicidology, and qualitative methods.

A few publications:

Lyra, R. L., McKenzie, Jenkin, G. &  S., Every-Palmer, S. (2024). "How can you not be traumatised?”: Experience of paramedics occupationally exposed to suicide . Paramedicine (in press). doi: 10.1177/27536386241283986

Lyra, R. L., McKenzie, S., Every-Palmer, S., & Jenkin, G. (2021). Occupational exposure to suicide: A review of research on the experiences of mental health professionals and first responders. PLoS one, 16(4), e0251038.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251038

Lyra, R. L., & Tavares, M. (2019). Suicide Behavior among elderly and public health policies in Brazil. In: Psicologia Clínica e Cultura Contemporânea 4, 341-362

Valentin, F., Guimarães, K. F. A., Lyra, R. L., &, Polejack, L. B. (2019) Group for suicide prevention in university context: An experience in Moçambique. NUFEN: Phenomenology and Interdisciplinarity, 11(2), 180-195. https://dx.doi.org/10.26823/RevistadoNUFEN.vol11.nº02rex31