Jo Evans is a lived experience researcher who started her research journey at the Service User Research Enterprise, before moving to the School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences at King’s College London. Her areas of expertise include patient and public involvement (PPI) and survivor research, adult mental health and qualitative research methodology.

She is currently undertaking a BRC-funded PhD looking at how patient and public involvement improves the quality of mental health research.

Since 2017, Jo has facilitated the BRC’s Service User Advisory Group (SUAG), which is a group of people with lived experience of mental distress, who also have an interest in mental health research. We meet regularly to review and provide feedback on a wide range of research designs and conduct.

Research Interests

Jo’s PhD focuses on the best ways to maximise patient and public involvement within mental health research, collaborating with a Working Group of people with lived experience throughout. She is particularly interested in the impact on people with lived experience who are either employed as researchers or who volunteer their services. The PhD is based on survivor research principles, where the perspectives of people with direct lived experience are centralised.

Jo specialises in qualitative methodologies, particularly focus groups and interviews, as well as the development of patient-reported outcome measures. Since joining the IOPPN, Jo has worked on a wide variety of studies, including:

• Combined money advice and psychological therapy in NHS Talking Therapy Services
• CIRCUITS: satisfaction with cognitive remediation therapy
• Coping mechanisms during Covid
• Patient and public involvement within the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre
• RADAR: using wearables to monitor depression, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis
• The Maudsley Side Effects Measure: antipsychotic medication side effects
• Consent for Contact: linking a research register with clinical health records.
• PERCEIVE: introducing therapies onto acute inpatient wards

PhD Supervisors

• Professor Dame Til Wykes
• Dr Angela Sweeney

Publications

Evans, J., Da Cunha Lewin, C., Fabian, H., Alam, M., Calder, P., Hill, R., Khayri, E., Markham, S., Sweeney, A., & Wykes, T. (2025). Facilitators of and barriers to patient and public involvement in mental health research within university settings: a systematic review and meta-synthesis. Psychological Medicine, 55, e297, 1–9 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291725101748 

Belcher, H., Parri, L., Kilcoyne, I., Evans, J., Lewin, C. D. C., Lau, K. Y. R., Bond, N., Darcy, C., Hatch, M., & Wykes, T. (2025). Feasibility and potential effects of a Combined Money Advice and Psychological Therapy Intervention Within NHS Talking Therapies Services. BJPsych Open, 11, e120, 1–9. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2025.37.

Belcher, H., Evans, J., Bond, N., Darcy, C., Hatch, M., Preece, G., & Wykes, T. (2024). Views of services users and staff on a combined money advice and psychological therapy service within IAPT. Journal of Mental Health, 33:3, 348–356. doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2022.2069718

Evans, J., Tinch-Taylor, R., Csipke, E., Cella, M., Pickles, A., McCrone, P., Stringer, D., Oliver, A., Reeder, C., Birchwood, M., Fowler, D., Greenwood, K., Johnson, S., Perez, J., Ritunnano, R., Thompson, A., Upthegrove, R., Wilson, J., Kenny, A., Isok, I., Joyce, E., & Wykes, T. (2023). Satisfaction with cognitive remediation therapy: its effects on implementation and outcomes using the cognitive remediation satisfaction scale. Schizophrenia, 9:67. doi.org/10.1038/s41537-023-00390-9. 

Dawe-Lane, E., Mutepua, M., Morris, D., Odoi, C., Wilson, E., Evans, J., Pinfold, V, Wykes, T., Jilka, S., & Simblett, S. (2022). Factors Influencing Increased Use of Technology to Communicate With Others :During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cross-sectional Web-Based Survey Study. JMIR Mental Health, 9(10):e31251. doi: 10.2196/31251 

Simblett, S., Jilka, S., Vitoratou, S., Hayes, C., Morris, D., Wilson, E., Odoi, C., Mutepua, M., Evans, J., Negbenose, E., Jansli, S., Hudson, G., Adanijo, A., DaweLane, E., Pinfold, V., & Wykes, T. (2022). Investigating a psychological model of mental conditions and coping during the COVID19 pandemic driven by participatory methods. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 57:2491–2501.  doi.org/10.1007/s00127-022-02316-9

Evans, J., & Papoulias, S. (2020). Between funder requirements and ‘jobbing scientists’: the evolution of patient and public involvement in a mental health biomedical research centre - a qualitative study. Research Involvement and Engagement, 6/12. doi.org/10.1186/s40900-020-00185-7 

Wykes, T., & Evans, J. (2020) Gender diversity in the Journal of Mental Health – how are we doing and what do we need to do? Journal of Mental Health, 29:5, 493-495, DOI: 10.1080/09638237.2020.1739254 

Simblett, S., Evans, J., Greer, B, Curtis, H, Matcham, F., Radaelli, M., Mulero, P., Arévalo, M., Polhemus, A., Ferrao, J., Gamble, P., Comi, G., & Wykes, T. (2019). Engaging across dimensions of diversity: A cross-national perspective on mHealth tools for managing relapsing remitting and progressive multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, 32, 123-132. DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2019.04.020  

Wykes, T., Evans, J., Patron, C., Barnes, T., Taylor, D., Bentall, R., Dalton, B., Ruffell, T., Rose, D., & Vitoratou, S. (2017). What side effects are problematic for patients prescribed antipsychotic medication? The Maudsley Side Effects (MSE) measure for antipsychotic medication. Psychological Medicine, 47, 2369–2378. doi:10.1017/S0033291717000903

Rose, D., Evans., J., Laker, C., & Wykes, T. (2015). Life in acute mental health settings: Experiences and perceptions of service users and nurses. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 24, 90–96. DOI: 10.1017/S2045796013000693 

Robotham, D., Evans, J., Watson, A., Perdue, I., Craig, T., Rose, D., & Wykes. T. (2015). Linking a research register to clinical records in older adults’ mental health services: a mixed-methods study. Alzheimer's Research and Therapy, 7:15. DOI: 10.1186/s13195-015-0103-8 Evans, J., Rose, D., Flach, C., Csipke, E., Glossop, H., McCrone, P., Craig, T., & Wykes, T. (2012). VOICE: Developing a new measure of service users’ perceptions of inpatient care, using a participatory methodology. Journal of Mental Health, 21(1): 57–71. DOI: 10.3109/09638237.2011.629240 

Rose, D., Evans., J., Sweeney, A., & Wykes, T. (2011). A model for developing outcome measures from the perspectives of mental health service users. International Review of Psychiatry, 23:1, 41-46. DOI: 10.3109/09540261.2010.545990 

Research Interests

• Qualitative methods 
• Patient and public involvement 
• Patient reported outcome measures 
• Inpatient services