Undergrad: Exploring Options
My fascination with psychology research began during my undergraduate years at the University of Cambridge. I studied politics, psychology, and sociology, but it was psychology that truly captured my interest. It opened my eyes to how psychology research can be applied to many fields and help improve people’s health and well-being.
Early Steps: Research Assistant at The Anna Freud Centre
To delve deeper into this passion, I joined The Anna Freud Centre’s Evidence-Based Practice Unit in London as a Research Assistant. Here, I worked with routinely collected outcomes data to evaluate Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). This experience solidified my commitment to health and psychology research, confirming my desire for a research-focused career and shaping my research interests into understanding how to support young people’s mental health.
Master’s Exploration: Psychology in Clinical Contexts
In the pursuit of my master’s degree in rehabilitation psychology, I enrolled at the University of Nottingham. I delved into the intersection of social science research and complex health needs. My project—examining professionals’ attitudes toward smartphone applications for children and adolescents with memory impairment due to acquired brain injury—resulted in my first published paper. Disseminating my findings to an academic audience was immensely rewarding, reinforcing my resolve to contribute to health research.
Diverse Experiences: Third Sector
Before fully committing to academia, I sought broader research exposure. I joined the children and young people’s cancer charity Young People vs Cancer in London and witnessed first-hand how research could influence policy and bridge the gap between the third sector and academia. Working directly with young people, I explored their experiences of cancer diagnosis through quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups. The fast-paced nature and policy impact of third-sector research intrigued me, but ultimately, I wanted to pursue an academic career to undertake more diverse projects, in-depth research, and research skill development.
PhD Journey: eCREST and Medical education
I secured a Health Foundation Improvement Science PhD fellowship at UCL. Collaborating with colleagues, we co-developed eCREST—a virtual patient intervention aimed at enhancing medical students’ clinical reasoning skills. I honed my expertise in mixed methods evaluation, conducting a feasibility randomised controlled trial and ‘think aloud’ interviews to assess eCREST. The impact was substantial: eCREST found its way into medical schools across the UK and internationally, transforming medical education.
Post-PhD Adventures: Social Media and Public Health
After my PhD, I continued my research journey as a fellow at UCL. Working on new projects helped expand my interests to social media and public health promotion. I was awarded a nationally competitive two-year NIHR School of Public Health Research (SPHR) post-doctoral launching fellowship. I learned more about epidemiology, analysing longitudinal data from national cohort surveys to explore the relationship between social media use and mental health in adolescents.
Current Pursuits: NIHR Three Schools Fellowship & working with industry
I received a two-year NIHR Three Schools’ Mental Health Programme Research Fellowship, to explore mental health research across primary care, public health, and social care.
My work included a scoping review on social media public mental health campaigns, qualitative interviews with young adults about social media and mental health, and help-seeking in primary care. Social media is widely used by 16-24-year-olds, but it can have both harmful effects on mental health and potential benefits, such as encouraging help-seeking. Despite this, young adults often avoid seeking help for common mental health issues. When they do seek help, primary care is a common entry point. Further research is needed to understand how social media can guide individuals toward mental health services and how primary care clinicians can address concerns related to social media use and mental health.
Additionally, I also undertook an NIHR and Zinc Innovation Fellowship to understand more about commercialising and evaluating digital mental health interventions, and to develop my research consultancy skills.