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    1. People
    2. Our research
    3. Past projects
    4. News and events
    5. Partnerships
    6. Publications
Mental Health

Centre for Mental Health Research

The Centre for Mental Health Research carries out collaborative research to improve mental health and wellbeing. The Centre has an international reputation for co-produced research with young people, adults and older adults experiencing mental health problems within the UK and internationally.

We undertake research at the interface between the many challenges to mental health and wellbeing that people face in their everyday lives, innovation in practice, and new forms of partnership between communities and mental healthcare providers. We will conduct applied mental health research across the life course that has meaningful impact on the health and wellbeing of all communities by:

  • Addressing marginalisation and inequalities in access, experiences and outcomes of mental health care
  • Responding to the most difficult challenges that people face in relation to complex trauma and mental health crisis
  • Developing and evaluating interventions and innovations
  • Working at the intersections of mental health, physical health and neurodiversity
  • Enhancing communication to improve mental health and wellbeing.

Our research is characterised by an approach that brings together:

  • Collaboration with communities, people with lived experience of mental distress and professionals working in mental health care to coproduce research
  • A focus on communication and relationships in mental health care
  • Creative synthesis of randomised controlled trial, qualitative, population-based and social science methodologies
  • A critical approach to understanding mental health that moves beyond diagnostically driven models to incorporate social determinates of mental health (including deprivation, marginalisation, racism, trauma and neurotypicalism).

We work alongside clinicians in numerous NHS Trusts, academic partners in leading universities in the UK and internationally, professional bodies (e.g. Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Psychiatrists) and charities (Alzheimer’s Society, McPin Foundation, National Survivor User Network, Samaritans, The Health Foundation). The Centre receives funding from a range of sources including the NIHR, ESRC, NHS Digital, the Dunhill Medical Trust and the British Academy.

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