Social justice and inequalities in mental health

Our research group brings together scholar-activists, practitioners, artists and those with lived experience of mental health difficulties to tackle disadvantage and to bring about change in knowledge, practice and public understanding of mental health. Influenced by critical social theory, including critical psychology, community psychology, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory and critical disability studies) we strive to promote a psychosocial understanding of mental distress as a meaningful response to adversity (such as poverty, war/conflict, violence, trauma, abuse, and discrimination) and shaped by social inequality (in relation to race, class, sexuality, gender, disability, etc.).

Our research

Drawing on our strengths in, and innovative approaches to, qualitative methods, our research brings to the fore the lived experiences and voices of those who experience mental distress, their families and carers, and the professionals who seek to deliver effective and compassionate services under adverse conditions (under-funding/funding cuts, staff shortages, institutional restraints and hostile work cultures).

We work in partnership with ‘experts by experience’, NHS service providers, mental health professionals, third sector organisations, schools and arts organisations, to raise awareness of mental health discrimination through effective public engagement that promotes a holistic view of the individual/community in context, and enables sustainable and effective change in service provision.

Barras, A., Frith, H., Jarvis, N., & Lucena, R. (2021). Timelines and transitions: Understanding transgender and non-binary people’s participation in everyday sport and physical exercise through a temporal lens. In Temporality in qualitative inquiry (pp. 57-71). Routledge.

Bawa, H., Poole, L., Cooke, D., Panagi, L., Steptoe, A., & Hackett, R. A. (2020). Diabetes-related distress and daily cortisol output in people with Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, 169, 108472.

Burke, L., John, M., & Hanna, P. (2022). A qualitative exploration of how young men in the UK perceive and experience informal help-seeking for mental health difficulties. Children and Youth Services Review, 137, 106440.

Enlander, A., Simonds, L., & Hanna, P. (2022). “I want you to help me, you’re family”: A relational approach to women's experience of distress and recovery in the perinatal period. Feminism & Psychology, 32(1), 62-80.

Frith, H. (2015). Visualising the ‘real’ and the ‘fake’: Emotion work and the representation of orgasm in pornography and everyday sexual interactions. Journal of Gender Studies, 24(4), 386-398.

Jankowski, G. S., & Frith, H. (2022). Psychology’s medicalization of male baldness. Journal of health psychology, 27(9), 2161-2180.

Koops, T. U., & Frith, H. (2021). ‘I don’t live in my body somehow’: metaphorical talk in women’s accounts of vaginismus and dyspareunia. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 1-15.

Morison, L., Simonds, L., & Stewart, S. J. F. (2021). Effectiveness of creative arts-based interventions for treating children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events: a systematic review of the quantitative evidence and meta-analysis. Arts & Health, 1-26.

Panagi, L., Hackett, R. A., Steptoe, A., & Poole, L. (2021). Enjoyment of life predicts reduced type 2 diabetes incidence over 12 years of follow-up: findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. J Epidemiol Community Health, 75(3), 297-304.

Poole, L., Frost, R., Rowlands, H., & Black, G. (2022). Experience of depression in older adults with and without a physical long-term condition: findings from a qualitative interview study. BMJ open, 12(2), e056566.

Poole, L., Hackett, R. A., Panagi, L., & Steptoe, A. (2020). Subjective wellbeing as a determinant of glycated hemoglobin in older adults: longitudinal findings from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Psychological medicine, 50(11), 1820-1828.

Poole, L., Ramasawmy, M., & Banerjee, A. (2021). ‘Digital first’ during the COVID-19 pandemic: does ethnicity matter? The Lancet Public Health, 6(9), e628-e630.

Price, C., Satherley, R. M., Jones, C. J., & John, M. Development and Evaluation of an eLearning Training Module to Improve UK Secondary School Teachers' Knowledge and Confidence in Supporting Young People Who Self-Harm. In Frontiers in Education (p. 351). Frontiers.

Ramasawmy, M., Poole, L., Thorlu-Bangura, Z., Chauhan, A., Murali, M., Jagpal, P., ... & Banerjee, A. (2022). Frameworks for Implementation, Uptake, and Use of Cardiometabolic Disease–Related Digital Health Interventions in Ethnic Minority Populations: Scoping Review. JMIR cardio, 6(2), e37360.

Ramasawmy, M., Poole, L., Thorlu-Bangura, Z., Chauhan, A., Murali, M., Jagpal, P., ... & Banerjee, A. (2022). Frameworks for implementation, uptake and use of digital health interventions in ethnic minority populations: a scoping review using cardiometabolic disease as a case study. JMIR Cardio.

Satherley, R. M., Hazell, C. M., Jones, C. J., & Hanna, P. (2022). A systematic review of the effects of urban living on suicidality and self-harm in the UK and Ireland. Journal of urban health, 1-24.

Singh Solorzano, C., Leigh, E., Steptoe, A., Ronaldson, A., Kidd, T., Jahangiri, M., & Poole, L. (2021). The Impact of Caregiving Burden on Mental Well-Being in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Caregivers: The Mediatory Role of Perceived Social Support. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(10), 5447.

Tweedlie, L., Simonds, L., Hanna, P., & Lui, D. F. (2022). A narrative exploration of identity in adults with de novo scoliosis. Health, 13634593211067892.