Why we research mental health
The world is witnessing a worrying rise in mental health disorders. More young people, in particular, are experiencing emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression, and heightened levels of distress.
Despite growing mental health awareness, many experiencing mental ill-health do not receive the support they need, when they need it, and there is a growing strain on service provision. Additionally, there are knowledge gaps around who is experiencing mental ill-health and why, and how best to respond.
Support delivered digitally, for example, through a phone, has emerged as one potential solution to flexibly meet the growing mental health need and provide targeted support. In order to be effective, new innovations must be evidence-based, designed with those who will be using them, and properly evaluated for clinical impact.
From identifying indicators that could aid early detection and prevention of deteriorating mental health, to understanding how social media and climate change affect mental health, this area requires broad thinking.
Using our expertise in digital health, data science and co-production, we’re looking at ways to help fill in these knowledge gaps and drive evidence-based innovation, so we can transform understanding and treatment of mental health problems.
Highlights from our mental health research
Mental health impacts of climate change
Climate change is an underappreciated mental health emergency. Climate Cares is a team of researchers, designers, policy experts and educators working to understand and support mental health in the current climate and ecological crises.
We enable people, communities and systems to have both the emotional resilience and transformative potential to cope with the climate emergency.
Climate Cares works to generate evidence, awareness of and solutions for the interconnections between climate change and mental health.
Climate Cares is a collaboration between the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) and the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment.
Read our briefing paper: "The impact of climate change on mental health and emotional wellbeing: current evidence and implications for policy and practice"
Visit our Climate Cares Centre website.
Using data to improve mental health services
IGHI has a longstanding partnership with Mental Health Innovations (MHI), a leading charity that leverages digital innovation to improve the mental health of people in the UK and which powers Shout, the 24/7 crisis text messaging service.
Our partnership is helping to develop vital insight into the mental health needs of people in the UK. Working with our collaborators across the College and Shout users, we used Natural Language Processing to analyse hundreds of thousands of conversations between service texters and volunteers using anonymised data from the service. We applied this technique to predict texter risk of suicide, texter demographics, and how helpful they found the conversation.
We also conducted analyses to predict how many texters will contact Shout on a particular day based on external events, and to identify characteristics of helpful and unhelpful conversations. Such insights will help Shout and the mental health sector respond to the large and rising mental distress faced by many, and we will work in partnership to do so.
Read our 2024 report: "Help is just a text away: Accessing and scaling mental health support through Shout’s digital service"
Read our blog post with MHI: "The power of service user voices to shape research and the services we provide"
Our people - get in touch
Prof Paul Aylin, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health
Dr Phoebe Averill, Research Associate in Patient Safety
Dr Lindsay Dewa, Advanced Research Fellow
Dr Emma Lawrance, Mental Health Innovations Fellow