Laura Rafferty

Biography

Laura studied Psychology at Brunel University graduating with a BSc in 2007. She was awarded the Thomas Gerald Gray Charitable Trust PhD studentship for academic excellence and research potential at Brunel University 2007 before receiving her PhD from the University of Southampton in 2011 for research exploring the human factors of fratricide in the UK Armed Forces.  

Before arriving at King’s she worked as a researcher across a number of military focused projects for the Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre (HFI-DTC), a research consortium funded by the Ministry of Defence and led by BAE Systems, at Brunel University and the University of Southampton.  

Laura joined King’s in 2016 to lead a qualitative study exploring barriers to mental health help seeking in UK military veterans. She is currently working across a number of projects including evaluating a mental fitness initiative developed for the Armed Forces; developing tools to reduce barriers to seeking mental health support for military veterans; evaluating interventions to support the families of veterans with mental health disorders; and exploring the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder on the development of dementia in military veterans. 

Research Interests

• Military Psychology 
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 
• Major Depressive Disorder 
• Mental Health Treatment 
• Barriers to Mental Health Treatment 
• Dementia