Professor Crick Lund

Biography

Crick Lund, BA (Hons), MA, MSocSci (Clinical Psychology), PhD, is Professor of Global Mental Health and Development in the King’s Global Health Institute and Centre for Global Mental Health, Health Services and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London.

He trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of Cape Town in the mid-1990s and was subsequently involved in developing post-apartheid norms for mental health services for the national Department of Health. He worked for the World Health Organisation (WHO) from 2000-2005, on the development of the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package, and has consulted to several countries on mental health policy and planning. He was a founding member of the Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health at the University of Cape Town and served as its first Director, from 2010 to 2017.

He was also the CEO of the PRogramme for Improving Mental health carE (PRIME), a DFID funded research consortium focusing on the integration of mental health into primary care in low resource settings (2011-2019) and Principal Investigator of the AFrica Focus on Intervention Research for Mental health (AFFIRM) U19 NIMH Collaborative Hub (2011-2017). His research interests lie in mental health policy, service planning and the relationship between poverty and mental health in low and middle-income countries. He joined King’s College London in 2017. 

Research interests

• Population mental health
• Mental health policy and services in low and middle-income countries
• Social determinants of mental health in low and middle-income countries
• Development and evaluation of psychological interventions and their clinical, social and economic outcomes in low and middle-income countries
• Links between sustainable development and mental health
• Health systems strengthening for mental health care in low and middle-income countries
• Mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness in vulnerable adolescents

Teaching

• Scaling up mental health services in low resource settings
• Social determinants of mental health
• Integrating mental health into primary care in low resource settings

Expertise and public engagement

• Chair: WHO Guidelines Development Committee for adolescent mental health promotion and prevention: Helping Adolescents Thrive (HAT)
• Scientific Advisory Board: Grand Challenges Canada Global Mental Health Programme
• Ministerial Advisory Committee for Mental Health, South African Department of Health
• Member: Academy of Science of South Africa
• Member: International Scientific Committee of the Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health
• External expert advisor: Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science
• Member: Movement for Global Mental Health Advisory Group