Population mental health prevention resources receive BPS logo endorsement

Some of you may have come across me in my former role, as Scottish Branch Chair (2022 - 2024). My background has been working in psychology (NHS and private practice) and more recently, I've been working as a senior public health programme manager, as I'm passionate about making a wider difference at population level. I am a registered professional in Public Health (accredited with UKPHR) and have completed a Population Health Fellowship through Health Education England, (accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health). I'm currently a Core20Plus Ambassador, where I'm gaining amazing training on advocating to tackle healthcare inequalities.

I've recently become aware that health services are increasingly struggling with a growing demand for mental health crisis care, where there's not enough funding to provide it. From my relatively unique career spanning psychology, public health, and population health, I've led on developing an innovative, accessible poster campaign series, co-developed with focus groups of adults and young people with lived experience. 

To the best of our knowledge, the ones I've developed are the first trauma-informed, place-based, anti-stigma resources that focus on strengthening social connections within communities, to increase social support and reduce distress. We hope these accessible materials will help communities to de-medicalise distress and tackle social injustices together. 

I'm grateful to Dr Lucy Johnstone, Honorary Fellow of the BPS, and one of the lead authors of the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), which has inspired this campaign, as well as the contributions of the PTMF subcommittee, Public Health and Prevention Interest Group, and the Division of Clinical Psychology, for their support. 

I'm delighted to announce that the Division of Clinical Psychology has now provided logo endorsement for these resources! From here, I'm delighted that these resources are being rolled out in a small pilot and evaluation within a contained community, by a trainee from University of Hertfordshire, along with Luton Council. 

It's also exciting that the BPS is planning on publishing these more widely in future, all being well with data on effectiveness from the pilot, which would mean free rollout of these innovative mental health prevention materials. 

I'm in discussions with Royal Holloway University to provide a doctoral trainee with an opportunity to evaluate the wider rollout of the future BPS published version of these resources, for their thesis. I'm also in discussions with the University of Canterbury, who have expressed interest in the possibility of carrying out further research using these innovate public mental health resources.

If anyone has specific questions about these resources, please contact me via LinkedIn.