Past projects
2021
A rapid realist review of telemental health
City St George’s Lead: Professor Rose McCabe
Funder: UCL Partners, £4,443.09
Duration: May 2021 to October 2021
Find out more here: Synthesis of the Evidence on What Works for Whom in Telemental Health: Rapid Realist Review - PubMed
Second Training on improving communication with people with psychosis
City St George’s Lead: Professor Rose McCabe
Funder: UNC The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, £1,152
Duration: May 2021 to May 2021
Find out more here: Training to enhance psychiatrist communication with patients with psychosis (TEMPO): cluster randomised controlled trial | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core
Community Development for Health Masterclass Programme
City St George’s Lead: Professor Angela Harden
Funder: GLA Greater London Authority, £8,000
Duration: March 2021 to June 2021
HEIF - Community, culture and peer support in mental health services: a participatory knowledge exchange project
City St George’s Lead: Steven Gillard
Funder: City St George’s, University of London, £7,189.93
Duration: January 2021 to July 2021
2020
Training on improving communication with people with psychosis
City St George’s Lead: Professor Rose McCabe
Funder: UNC The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, £1,152
Duration: December 2020 to November 2021
Find out more here: Training to enhance psychiatrist communication with patients with psychosis (TEMPO): cluster randomised controlled trial | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core
Co-designing culturally engaging alcohol intervention to reduce harm in Nepal
City St George's Lead: Professor Jacqueline Sin
Team: Ranjita Dhital (University of Reading, co-CI), Adhijit Nadkarni (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), Anup Adhikari (Programme for Improving Mental Health (PRIME) Nepal Collaborators), Edwin van Teijlingen (Bournemouth University), Glenn Robert (King’s College London), Nagendra Luitel (Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO) Nepal),
Funder: City St George's Global Challenges Research Fund, £15,473.81
Duration: December 2020 to July 2021
Alcohol causes approximately 3.3 million deaths annually, representing 5.9% of all deaths worldwide. In low-income countries like Nepal, morbidity and mortality risks are greater per litre of pure alcohol consumed than in higher-income countries.
This cross-disciplinary study will explore and expand on the multi-country Programme for Improving Mental Health Care conducted at one of the sites, Chitwan District, Nepal. This is an area with significant mental health and alcohol problems, where non-significant findings were reported when a psychological alcohol intervention was delivered in primary care settings by trained community-based counsellors.
This study will be the first to use Experience-based Co-design (EBCD) and Photovoice to explore how community assets (including the arts, culture, heritage sites, green spaces, community associations and volunteer groups) can be best incorporated in co-designing an alcohol intervention for future evaluation in a low-resource country. The co-designed intervention will be developed to a stage ready for piloting and evaluation. We hope this will lead to the development of a culturally engaging alcohol intervention to provide sustainable and long-term health and social benefits.
HEIF - Development of resources for refugees to improve access to primary healthcare services and communicate their health needs
City St George’s Lead: Susannah Hermaszewska
Funder: City University of London, £1,300
Duration: December 2020 to July 2021
Co-production project to improve access to primary healthcare for refugees and asylum seekers experiencing mental distress
City St George's Lead: Susannah Hermaszewska (CI)
Team: Jacqueline Sin (City St George's), Angela Sweeney (King’s College London), Angelina Jalonen (Refugee Council)
Funder: School of Health and Medical Sciences, Research Sustainability Fund & Higher Education Innovation Fund, £3,340
Duration: December 2020 to June 2021
All asylum seekers and refugees in the UK are entitled to free primary and secondary healthcare with the NHS. Whilst levels of mental and physical health needs in this population are high, utilisation of primary healthcare services remains low.
Recent research has shown that refugees seeking help from primary healthcare services are hampered by discriminatory policies of these services, such as refusal to register patients without proof of legal status or address, but also their lack of knowledge about the UK healthcare system, language and cultural barriers, fear of disclosing sensitive information, and stigma associated with mental health.
The aim of this coproduction project is to develop and disseminate informative resources to support help-seeking and aid communication about health needs between asylum seekers and refugees and primary healthcare practitioners. This project is being undertaken in partnership with the Refugee Council, a nation-wide organisation, which provides therapeutic services, advocacy, and support to asylum seekers and refugees in the UK. The resources will be co-produced with members of the refugee community, therapists at the Refugee Council and General Practitioners serving the refugee community.
Find out more and download the resources here: Refugee Council therapeutic wellbeing resources
HEIF - Using Video Feedback in Perinatal Mental Health: A Knowledge Exchange Workshop
City St George’s Lead: Dr Kirsten Barnicot
Funder: City St George’s, University of London
Duration: December 2020 to July 2021
Find out more here: Full article: Video feedback for young babies and maternal perinatal mental illness: intervention adaptation, feasibility and acceptability
EFFIP (E-support for Families and Friends of Individuals affected by Psychosis): A randomised controlled trial of a co-produced online intervention for carer
City St George’s Lead: Dr Jacqueline Sin
Funder: NIHR / DHSC Department of Health and Social Care, £39,109.70
Duration: June 2020 to December 2020
Agency, Social Identity & Justice in Mental Health: A Collaboration with Young People, Clinicians & Academics across Philosophy, Ethics & Neuroscience
City St George's Lead: Professor Rose McCabe (CI)
Team: Lisa Bortolotti (University of Birmingham), Matthew Broome (University of Birmingham), Michael Larkin (Aston University); Rachel Temple (McPin Foundation)
Funder: MRC/ESRC/AHRC, £94,267.71
Duration: April 2020 to March 2021
The project has established a new collaboration involving young people, their families, clinicians and academics across philosophy, ethics, psychology and neuroscience to investigate agency, identity and justice in youth mental health. We will analyse verbal and non-verbal communication in mental healthcare encounters involving young people to examine how agency is fostered or thwarted, and test novel interview methods with young people.
Find out more here: UKRI project page - 'Agency, Social Identity & Justice in Mental Health: A Collaboration with Young People, Clinicians & Academics across Philosophy, Ethics & Neuroscience'
Meta-ethnography and migrant distress: where are transgender forced migrants in global mental health research?
City St George's Lead: Susannah Hermaszewska
Team: Jacqueline Sin (City St George's), Angela Sweeney (King’s College London), B Camminga (Wits University, Johannesburg) Riley Botelle (King's College London).
Funder: National Institute for Health Research, £69,641
Duration: March 2020 to June 2021
We are conducting a systematic review and meta-ethnography of inter-disciplinary literature on the lived experiences of transgender forced migrants. The aim of this review is to deepen the understanding of what factors impact the mental health of transgender forced migrants, and to understand the mental health and healthcare needs unique to their transgender identity, and their forced migrant status.
This review aims to explore and outline the barriers and facilitators transgender individuals face accessing healthcare during migration and in their host countries. During this project, we are also looking closely at the ethical and methodological implications of using a meta-ethnographic approach to carry out research with exceptionally marginalised communities.
HEIF - RELATE Study London Dissemination Workshop
City St George’s Lead: Professor Rose McCabe
Funder: City St George’s, University of London, £4,085
Duration: March 2020 to July 2020
A feasibility trial of video feedback for parents with personality disorder
City St George’s Lead: Dr Kirsten Barnicot
Funder: NIHR / DHSC Department of Health and Social Care, £12,619
Duration: February 2020 to January 2021
Find out more here: A feasibility trial of video feedback for parents with personality disorder - NIHR Funding and Awards
What difference does it make? An intersectional framework to measure mental health harms in women and men associated with different thresholds of violence and abuse: a systematic review and meta-analysis
City St George's Leads: Professors Steve Gillard and Jacqueline Sin (Co-Is)
Team: Nadia Mantovani (Georges University of London, CI), Angela Sweeney (King’s College London), Sarah White (St George’s, University of London), Lucy Allwright (Against Violence and Abuse), Emma Brett (Anglia Ruskin University)
Funder and award: The Violence Abuse & Mental Health Network UK Research and Innovation, £25,000
Duration: January 2020 to February 2021
This systematic review and meta-analysis will combine the results of quantitative studies to provide an analysis of measures of effect of the mental health harms associated with different kinds and thresholds of violence and abuse (VA), which will include types, frequency, severity and duration of VA. These associations will be further analysed between women and men to assess the gendered nature of violence, and in relation to other social inequalities analysis as specified above.
A New Global Teaching and Research Partnership on Patient Involvement in Health Decisions
City St George's Lead: Professor Rose McCabe (PI)
Team: Hunan University, China; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Osaka, Japan; Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), Brazil;
Funder: City St George's, University of London Global Seed Fund
Duration: January 2020 to November 2020
2019
Investigating the feasibility of using body worn cameras to identify effective de-escalation practice in mental health settings
City St George’s Lead: Dr Mary Lavelle
Funder: City St George’s, University of London, £9,851.14
Duration: November 2019 to December 2021
Evaluation support for GPN programme
City St George’s Lead: Dr Mary Lavelle
Funder: Health Education England, £5,000
Duration: November 2019 to November 2021
Project description: To provide support to evaluate the effectiveness of local education and training programmes associated with HEE’s General Practice Nursing programme in 2018/19.
Music-assisted programmes: Developing communication in autism spectrum disorder through music-making (MAP)
City St George's Lead: Professor Jacqueline Sin (co-I)
Team: Dr Fang Liu (CI), Dr Tim Williams, Dr Tom Loucas (University of Reading)
Funder: European Research Council Proof of Concept Grant, €150,000
Duration: September 2019 to September 2021
The project aims to develop a set of music-assisted intervention programmes (MAP) to increase spoken language ability in 24-60-month-old nonverbal or minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We compare the MAP with standard speech and language therapy in children aged three to five-year old through an online randomised controlled trial.
Learn more about the MAP study.
Accessibility and acceptability of perinatal mental health services for women from Ethnic Minority groups (PAAM)
City St George's Lead: Professor Rose McCabe (co-I)
Team: S Priebe (Queen Mary University of London, CI), Alex Copello, Charles Musters (East London NHS Foundation Trust), Giles Berrisford, Jelena Jankovic, Justine Cawley (East London NHS Foundation Trust), Nikolina Jovanovic, Olivia Protti (East London NHS Foundation Trust), Qulsom Fazil, Syeda Tahir
Funder: NIHR Health Services & Delivery Research, £444,534.
Duration: May 2019 to June 2021
Women who have mental health problems during pregnancy and in the first year after giving birth (called the perinatal period) can face a number of difficulties in seeking professional help. The difficulties in seeking help are probably more pronounced for women from ethnic minorities. In order to improve services for these women we need to better understand how women from ethnic minorities get into contact with perinatal mental health services and whether these services are acceptable to them. We will explore this in the proposed research which will be carried out in four steps. In the first step we will investigate two large national databases in order to see to what extent women from different ethnic minorities use mental health services during the perinatal period. In the second step, we will collect additional information from specialist perinatal mental health services in two areas with large ethnic minority populations- Birmingham and East London. We will assess to what extent women from ethnic minorities do not attend appointments at specialist services and how they are referred to two Mother and Baby psychiatric hospital units. In the third step we will carry out in-depth interviews with women from South Asian and Black ethnic minority groups who experienced perinatal mental health problems, with their partners and family members/carers, and with different health professionals about their attitudes, expectations and experiences. In the fourth step we will, together with other stakeholders (women with lived experience and their families, commissioners, health professionals and community organisations), discuss the best way to make use of our study findings in order to improve mental health services that women from different ethnic minorities receive during the perinatal period.
Find out more here: NIHR project page: Accessibility and acceptability of perinatal mental health services for women from Ethnic Minority groups (PAAM)
Recovery in Mind – Reaching Communities
City St George's Lead: Professor Jacqueline Sin
Team: Angela Ryan, CEO of Recovery in Mind and the Recovery in Mind team
Funder: The Big Lottery Fund, £78,000.00
Duration: April 2019 - September 2021
Recovery in Mind Recovery College (RiM) was first established in June 2016, led by Angela Ryan, an experiential expert. RiM, like all recovery colleges, adopts an educational philosophy and offers a range of educational courses about mental health and recovery for the local residents, including individuals affected by mental health conditions, carers and health care professionals.
The participants are regarded as “students” who play an active role in learning and taking on self-management skills and moving on with their life despite ongoing mental health challenges. All RiM courses are co-run by “Peer Workers”, i.e. experts through experience and mental health professionals.
In 2019, RiM has obtained funding from a Big Lottery Reaching Communities Grant to extend and expand its capacity to deliver a range of courses to West Berkshire residents, across two years. Research study is run in parallel to provide a rigorous evaluation of such provision. Hence, this study aims to:
- Evaluate the impact of the RiM courses in promoting students’ wellbeing and subjective perception of recovery
- To explore students’ lived experience of recovery journey through the RiM courses
- Evaluate and explore the health-related outcomes and lived experience of recovery in the Peer Workers.
Organisational Resilience in Health Care
City St George’s Lead: Dr Mary Lavelle
Funder: Imperial College London, £10,000
Duration: April 2019 to June 2020
Evaluating Mental Health Decision Units in acute care pathways (DECISION): A quasi-experimental and health economic evaluation
City St George's Lead: Professor Steve Gillard (CI)
Project team: Lucy Goldsmith (City St George's), Jo Lomani (City St George's), Katie Anderson (City St George's), Chloe Crowe (North East London Foundation NHS Trust), David McDaid (LSE), Geraldine Clarke (The Health Foundation), Heather Jarman (St George’s Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust), Jared Smith (St George’s University of London), Kati Turner (St George’s, University of London), Sonia Johnson (UCL).
Funder: National Institute for Health Research, Health Services & Deliver Research £418K
Duration: March 2019 – February 2021
This project aims to establish the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of new mental health decision units (MHDU) – short stay units that aim to improve the experience of metal health crisis care, and to reduce mental health presentations at Emergency Departments and unhelpful psychiatric admissions – and to explore the optimal configuration of MHDU as part of the mental health crisis care pathway.
An interrupted time series design in four mental health NHS Trusts, complemented with a synthetic control study using national data sets, will establish the effectiveness of MHDU while a cohort study will explore the impact of visiting a MHDU on individual crisis care pathways. In depth qualitative research, developed and undertaken by researchers with lived experience of mental distress and using mental health services, will explore people’s experiences of crisis, staying on a MHDU and the impact of visiting the unit on future support for crisis, as well as the expectations and experiences of staff working on MHDU and on the crisis referral pathway.
Data from all studies will be used to inform the economic evaluation, modelling the cost benefits of different configurations of MHDU in the crisis pathway.
2018
Development of an Intervention to Support Mental and Physical Health Professionals to Manage Type II Diabetes Mellitus Care in People with Severe Mental Illness
City St George's Lead: Tracey Dorey (PhD)
Team: Kathleen Mulligan (City), Mark Haddad (City), Alan Simpson, Hayley McBain
Funder: East London NHS Foundation Trust, £95,320
Duration: October 2018 to October 2021
Summary: The project aims to develop a theoretically informed and evidence-based intervention to support mental and physical health professionals manage Type II diabetes mellitus in people with a severe mental illness. This is a mixed-methods study across three work packages (WP).
WP1 informs selection of candidate intervention components. WP2 consists of three smaller projects (WP2.1a: Innovation Tournament, WP 2.1b: Challenge Committee, WP 2.2: e-Delphi) within which participants assess the candidate intervention components across a range of criteria and provide innovative ideas for delivery.
The ideas are refined by the challenge committee and the resulting intervention package(s) are assessed for acceptability through an eDelphi consensus event. WP3 consists of semi-structured interviews whereby participants are asked to provide their experience and expertise to support development of a contextualised programme theory of how the intervention is expected to work, for whom and in what circumstances.
Mental health and wellbeing in pregnant and post-natal teenager: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of young women's experiences and support needs
City St George’s Lead: Dr Grace Lucas
Funder: City St George’s, University of London, £4,994
Duration: April 2018 to April 2019
2017
Community Mental Health Care Pathway – National Adviser
City St George’s Lead: Professor Alan Simpson
Funder: Royal College of Psychiatrists, £30,550
Duration: November 2017 to December 2018
Project description: National Advisor to develop new national guidance on community mental health services.
Project led by National Coordination Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) and commissioned by NHS England.
Boosting baby behaviour and bonding in parents with enduring difficulties in managing emotions and relationships (BOOST)
City St George's Lead: Dr Kirsten Barnicot (CI)
Team: Eloise Stevens (Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust), Jane Iles (University of Surrey), Jennie Parker (Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust), Maddalena Miele (Central & North West London NHS Foundation Trust), Mike Crawford (Imperial College London), Ola Ajala (Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust), Paul Ramchandani (University of Cambridge), Sushma Sundaresh (Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust), Tara Lawn (East London NHS Foundation Trust)
Funder: NIHR Research for Patient Benefit, £238,399.00
Duration: June 2017 to January 2021
The term "personality disorder " describes a set of experiences involving enduring difficulties in managing emotions and relationships with others. Research has shown that children whose parents experience these difficulties face an increased risk of developing their own socioemotional difficulties. Parent-infant interventions could be helpful by offering parents early support with the parent-infant relationship; however, the effectiveness of such interventions has never been evaluated in this group of parents.
Research with other vulnerable families has shown a brief six-session video-feedback intervention - the video feedback intervention for positive parenting - can improve the parent-child interaction and reduce the risk of child socioemotional difficulties, by helping parents understand and respond sensitively to their child’s behaviour.
The BOOST trial aims to establish whether parents with enduring difficulties in managing emotions and relationships, who have a child aged between 6 and 36 months, consent to and complete this video feedback intervention, how they think it could be improved, and whether it is feasible to test it in a larger trial in the future. We piloted the intervention in a small group of parents, used their feedback to modify the intervention, and then conducted a feasibility randomised controlled trial to compare the video feedback intervention to treatment-as-usual.
2016
Achieving quality and effectiveness in dementia using crisis team (AQUEDUCT)
City St George’s Lead: Dr Juanita Hoe
Funder: NIHR / DHSC Department of Health and Social Care, £7,703
Duration: December 2016 to November 2022
Find out more here: Achieving Quality and Effectiveness in Dementia Using Crisis Teams (AQUEDUCT): a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a Resource Kit - PMC
Poverty, pathology and pills: moral narratives and the medicalisation of distress
City St George’s Lead: Professor Rose McCabe
Funder: ESRC Economic and Social Research Council, £3,536.41
Duration: November 2016 to April 2019
Find out more here: Microsoft Word - Final report 8 May 2019 +FT.docx
2014
Managing Agitation and Raising Quality of Life. A Project to Improve Quality of Life in People with Moderate or Severe Dementia
City St George’s Lead: Dr Juanita Hoe
Funder: ESRC Economic and Social Research Council, £6,816.80
Duration: March 2014 to February 2019