Dr Daniel Michelson

I trained in clinical psychology at King's and returned as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in 2022. Prior to this, I held academic posts at Sussex, LSHTM and Oxford. I currently work between the IoPPN's Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, where I am an Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

My research is concerned with preventing and treating common mental health problems among underserved children, young people and their families. Key strands involve: (i) studying how social and cultural contexts affect youth mental health, ill-health and help-seeking; (ii) co-designing psychosocial interventions and other practice innovations with disadvantaged and seldom-heard groups; (iii) investigating outcomes and implementation processes in pragmatic trials and service evaluations; and (iv) integrating data to understand how, when, why and for whom interventions are (and are not) effective.

I collaborate with partners in the UK and internationally to generate and translate evidence in diverse settings outside of traditional clinics. This includes projects in primary and secondary schools, university campuses, children's centres, voluntary youth services, and community spaces such as barbershops. Scalability is a prime consideration and addressed through brief intervention formats, transdiagnostic practice elements, digital platforms, and task-sharing models of care using peers and paraprofessionals. Participatory approaches are emphasised so that research questions and outputs are grounded in lived experience.

Current and recent projects

• METROPOLIS: MEchanistic TRial Of Problem sOLving and behavIoural activation for youth depreSsion. Funder: Wellcome Trust. Role: PI. 2023-27.
• CATALYST: Co-designing and testing an Asset-based TAsk-sharing modeL for Youth mental health Services in deprived communiTies. Funder: NIHR Applied Research Collaboration in Kent, Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS). Role: Co-PI. 2022-25.
• Baatcheet (‘Conversation’): Developing a web-based storytelling intervention to address anxiety, depression and social disability among Indian youth aged 16-24 years. Funder: Grand Challenges Canada. Role: Co-I. 2022-24.
• MHIN: Mental Health Implementation Network. Funder: NIHR. Role: Co-Lead, Children and Young People's Mental Health (Project 2). 2022-24.
• HOPEFUL: Developing a hope-focused intervention to improve mental health and social outcomes among young women who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) and living in coastal communities. Funder: NIHR Public Health Research. Role: Co-PI. 2022.
• PRIDE: PRemIum for aDolEscents. Developing and evaluating a suite of transdiagnostic mental health interventions for common adolescent mental health problems in India. Funder: Wellcome Trust. Role: Clinical Academic Director. 2016-22.
• Active Ingredients: Understanding mechanisms of psychological interventions for youth anxiety and depression. Funder: Wellcome Trust. Role: PI (problem solving); Co-I (hopefulness, self-disclosure and psychoeducation). 2020-21.

Research Interests

• Children and young people's mental health
• School- and community-based mental health services
• Global mental health
• Task-sharing
• Prevention and treatment of anxiety, depression, conduct problems and their co-occurrence
• Development and trials of psychosocial interventions
• Mixed-method evaluation
• Evidence synthesis
• Co-design

Teaching

I jointly lead the Service Development and Evaluation module for the MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.