Mental Health Awareness Week – UCL highlights

Mental Health Awareness Week is taking place this week, giving us a chance to shine a spotlight on the role that research plays in transforming the lives of people affected by mental health conditions.

This year, the theme is anxiety and the work of IoMH affiliates including Professor Oliver Robinson and his work at the Anxiety Lab, has been highlighted. Meanwhile, Dr Gemma Lewis, who specialises in preventing and treating anxiety depression, is interviewed about her work, which is also featured in a BBC Radio 4 documentary this week.

The IoMH facilitates multidisciplinary thinking and collaboration, engaging research staff from across UCL. Some of this collaborative work is being highlighted this week, including the that of Dr Rochelle Burgess who leads research projects linked to mental health in contexts of adversity, often with a focus on global health.

And the work of researchers specialising in mental health from childhood to old age is also highlighted, with profiles of Professor Essi Viding, a specialist in the mental health of child and young people, Professor Gill Livingston, a professor in psychiatry of older people and Professor Roz Shafran who focuses on the translation of research into clinical practice at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

Finally, at the cutting edge of research, we have data science approaches to mental health, which examine years of health data sets, helping us understand the social, economic and health outcomes across generations. Dr Joseph Hayes discusses how these broad longitudinal approaches, rather than looking at clinical data in isolation, can help us to better understand mental health conditions.

You can find all the mental health awareness week content for 2023 on a special area of the UCL website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mental-health/mental-health-awareness-week

Find out more about the people behind the research in the IoMH Researchers’ Directory: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mental-health/people/mental-health-researchers-directory

Find out more about IoMH affiliation opportunities here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mental-health/about/affiliation