Summary
Emma is the Mental Health Innovations Fellow at the Institute of Global Health Innovation. She leads the mental health strategy for the Institute, primarily encompassing research and innovation in digital mental health support, and the climate change and mental health program, Climate Cares. She is also a member of the Mental Health Innovations team, leading the partnership with Imperial researchers to study the Shout dataset and supervising students. Other work includes a focus on youth mental health, and improving the use of mental health data from charities to better understand mental health needs and the impact of services.
Emma’s background is in physics and chemistry (BSc (Hons), Flinders University), science communication (Grad Dip, Australian National University) and neuroscience (MSc, University of Oxford). A variety of previous roles include work across science communication and science education. For her DPhil in Clinical Neuroscience she used fMRI and computational modelling to examine how uncertainty is processed in the brain and affects decisions, particularly for those with a tendency to experience anxiety. She also examined the interactions between perceptual uncertainty and strategy uncertainty, and how our brain integrates this information to modulate attentional systems for goal-directed behaviour. Alongside this work she founded the youth mental health charity It Gets Brighter, of which she remains a Trustee.
Publications
Journals
Croasdale K, Grailey K, Jennings N, et al., 2023, Planning for the perfect storm: perceptions of UK mental health professionals on the increasing impacts of climate change on their service users, The Journal of Climate Change and Health, Vol:13, ISSN:2667-2782, Pages:1-11
Alford J, Massazza A, Jennings NR, et al., 2023, Developing global recommendations for action on climate change and mental health across sectors: a Delphi-style study, The Journal of Climate Change and Health, Vol:12, ISSN:2667-2782, Pages:1-11
Lawrance E, Thompson R, Roberts L, et al., 2023, Ambient temperature and mental health: a systematic review and meta analysis, The Lancet Planetary Health, Vol:7, ISSN:2542-5196, Pages:e580-e589
Pavarini G, Reardon T, Hollowell A, et al., 2023, Online peer support training to promote adolescents' emotional support skills, mental health and agency during COVID-19: Randomised controlled trial and qualitative evaluation, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol:32, ISSN:1018-8827, Pages:1119-1130
Lawrance EL, Rao M, 2023, Why COP28 must be a health COP Global leadership appears not to recognise that the climate crisis is a public health crisis, write Emma L Lawrance and Mala Rao, Bmj-british Medical Journal, Vol:380, ISSN:0959-535X