Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Associate Professor
- Division of Psychiatry
- Faculty of Brain Sciences
I joined UCL in 2015, having worked as a freelance
research consultant, and held posts previously as an affiliated lecturer at
University of Cambridge, and senior lecturer in social psychology at Anglia Ruskin
University. I have also worked for The Open University and in NHS and
university-based research posts. I completed an MSc and PhD in social
psychology at London School of Economics, and continue to use the broad social
science perspective this training gave me in my current work.


I am an Associate Professor in the Division of Psychiatry, and a specialist in qualitative research methods in mental health. I work across numerous research projects, leading qualitative work streams that aim broadly to explore and understand the experiences and perspectives of stakeholders (particularly service users) in mental health, and to bring these insights into treatment and service development.
My specific research interests centre around collaborative forms of medication management in mental health, and acute care for mental health crises. In the field of psychiatric medication management, I have led work on service users’ views and experiences of taking medication, and of related discussions and decisions with prescribers; developed a conceptualisation of shared decision making (SDM) in mental healthcare contexts; and developed and evaluated interventions to enhance SDM. I currently lead qualitative work within the ‘RADAR’ study (PI: Joanna Moncrieff, UCL) on antipsychotic reduction and discontinuation. In the field of acute care, I have led qualitative work in a number of related UCL projects (eg the ‘CORE’ and ‘Alternatives’ studies, PI: Sonia Johnson), exploring mental health crisis care provided in psychiatric hospital units, crisis houses, crisis resolution and home treatment teams, and acute day units. This has contributed to understanding the critical ingredients of good crisis care, and to service improvement initiatives in this area.
I believe that good research is a collaborative endeavour
in which team working and multiple perspectives enrich understanding and
enhance the quality of findings and outputs. As a qualitative researcher, much
of my work interfaces with PPI (Public and Patient Involvement) activities. In
particular, I am strongly committed to the development of service user voice
and participation in research. I often work closely with ‘lived experience’ and
stakeholder groups, and with researchers at the McPin Foundation. I regularly
run research methods training workshops for ‘peer researchers’ (people who
identify as mental health service users), and supervise peer researchers up to
PhD level and beyond.
I am a senior member of the core team running the highly popular and successful MSc programmes in Clinical Mental Health Research / Mental Health Sciences Research in the Division of Psychiatry. I teach qualitative research methods, supervise MSc dissertations and co-lead an optional module Masters level module ‘Mental Health in Social and Global Context’. I currently co-supervise 3 PhD students:
Rory Sheehan: Optimising psychotropic medication for people with intellectual disability
Hannah Scott: People bereaved by suicide and support from their family and friends: understanding social network interactions and their impact.
Natasha Lyons: Exploring relapse and recovery following discharge from Early Intervention in Psychosis Services