Growing a team that shape thinking around mental health
We’re a close-knit team of lecturers, teaching fellows, lecturer practitioners, research associates and PhD students. Visiting lecturers also share their expertise with us and our students.
Together, we influence, support and train to give people the skills they need to help those living with mental illness, their families and communities.
Our students are taught by the people that write their textbooks – ‘The Art & Science of Mental Health Nursing’, one of the most comprehensive books in the field, is edited by our Executive Dean Professor, Ian Norman, and nearly half the chapters are written by the team.
Understanding mental healthcare through patient experience
Our research gives people a voice and helps us listen to the groups that are “hard to hear”. This involves working with people in recovery to champion putting people who are experts by experience at the centre of our research.
We also partner with other groups. For example, in our research that explores reducing suicides on railways we are working with the University of Westminster, Middlesex University, Network Rail and the Samaritans.
The Department leads research in:
- Mental health, stigma and loneliness in older people
- Child and adolescence mental health
- Managing self-harm behaviours
- History of mental health nursing including treatment for homosexuality (when it was viewed as an illness)
- Policy and workforce development
- Student mental health wellbeing
Dr Tommy Dickson’s research on historical accounts of treatments to “cure” homosexuality led to him acting as the Historical Consultant for the BAFTA-nominated BBC film Against the Law, and helping curate exhibitions at the Science Museum and Manchester Museum.