Ms Ruth Stuart

Ruth has been a Research Assistant for the Mental Health Policy Research Unit since 2017, working on a series of projects:

• a review of carers’ experiences of detention under the Mental Health Act;
• a survey community crisis services in England;
• interviews with people with complex emotional needs about their experiences of community mental health services;
• a survey of mental health staff about the impact of COVID on their work and patients;
• qualitative interviews as part of an evaluation of the public mental health literacy campaign Every Mind Matters.

Ruth is also a Research Assistant for a project in Psychological Medicine: ‘Ethnic inequalities in mortality and service use in people with mental disorders and multi-morbidities during the COVID-19 pandemic.’

Prior to this, 2008-2017, Ruth worked on the:

• ESMI study about the effectiveness of perinatal mental health services;
• CostED study about the prevalence of anorexia amongst young people and the cost-effectiveness of specialist eating disorder services;
• Welfare Benefits study with Mind in Croydon to explore the impact of benefit reassessments on people’s mental health;
• Evaluation of the anti-stigma campaign Time to Change.

Research Interests

Qualitative work with peer researchers. It is a privilege to listen to the experiences of interview participants from a range of locations and backgrounds and to learn from colleagues with experience of using mental health services.

Key Publications

Do welfare benefit reassessments of people with mental health conditions lead to worse mental health? A prospective cohort study (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764019888955

Carers’ experiences of involuntary admission under mental health legislation: systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis (2020)

https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2019.101