In the news...
for February 2025
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from the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham
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The Institute is on Bluesky!
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We have noticed over the last few months the increase in popularity for the social media platform Bluesky and felt it was time to join in the action and further our reach to share and discuss all the interesting and excellent work that happens at the Institute.
We would like to extend an invitation to anyone already on the platform to give the official Institute page a follow to be kept up to date with news and updates from the Institute
Find us at @institutemh.org.uk
Professor Martin Orrell
Director, Institute of Mental Health
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Experts from the University of Nottingham are part of the first phase of a new research project that will lay the groundwork for future studies into the impact on children of smartphone and social media use.
The work, which is led by the University of Cambridge has been commissioned by the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology after a review by the UK Chief Medical Officer in 2019 found the evidence base around the links to children’s mental health were insufficient to provide strong conclusions suitable to inform policy.
The project includes researchers from the University of Nottingham’s UKRI-funded Digital Youth programme, based in the School of Psychology and School of Medicine and Institute of Mental Health. It is aimed at improving policymakers’ understanding of the relationship between children’s wellbeing and smartphone use, including social media and messaging. It will help direct future government action in this area.
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STADIA trial paper has been published in the Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry.
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The STADIA trial focused on 1225 children and young people with emotional difficulties referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across different parts of England, and followed them up over 18 months.
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Some of the main findings include:
- Only 44% of children and young people had their referral to CAMHS accepted, and 35% required a re-referral to CAMHS, suggesting that there were delays in receiving help.
- These children and young people had high levels of mental health needs, with 67% scoring very high for at least one emotional disorder on the DAWBA (Development & Well-Being Assessment) – most commonly depression or an anxiety disorder.
- Despite this, only 11% received a clinical diagnosis of an emotional disorder from CAMHS.
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Prof Chris Hollis, Prof David Daley and Dr Blandine French have all joined the new national NHS Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) taskforce as 'Experts in Evidence'
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The taskforce, launched by NHS England together with the government, brings together those with lived experience, experts from the NHS, education, charity and justice sectors. The taskforce will try to gain a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including timely access to services and support. The experts in evidence will expand the taskforce’s range of academic expertise.
There are only seven UK researchers in the expert by evidence group, and three of them are Institute of Mental Health colleagues.
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Metacognition, philosophy in prisons and the demands of rehabilitation - new paper published from the Centre for Health and Justice
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Colleagues from the Institute's Centre for Health and Justice, Dr Isabel Gois and Professor Eddie Kane, have published a paper in The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice.
The paper proposes that regular philosophy sessions, when delivered in tandem with other programmes already available to prisoners, have the potential to play a supportive role in prisons by providing a space where metacognition (sometimes described as ‘thinking about thinking’ or ‘cognition about cognition') can be nurtured and developed.
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The Midlands Mental Health and Neurosciences Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) has released this year's list of PhD projects for practicing healthcare professionals, with many of the opportunities available at the University of Nottingham
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The Midlands Mental Health & Neurosciences PhD Programme is led by the University of Nottingham, in collaboration with University of Birmingham, University of Leicester, and University of Warwick, and local NHS Trusts in the Midlands. The DTP aims to create and sustain a collaborating clinical-academic ecosystem to address the key contemporary mental health challenges. PhDs are funded by Wellcome in collaboration with DTP universities.
PhD opportunities available with supervisors connected to the Institute of Mental Health
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'Creative Survival' written by Professor Paul Crawford
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From books to films, and singing to dancing, our cultural health is very much part of our social, physical and mental health. We can think of this as ‘creative survival’, which is very much part of public health. We can lead healthier lives through actively participating through say, drawing, singing or dancing, but also in experiencing creative resources by, for example, watching films, reading or listening to music.
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Applications for the second cohort of the Institute's CPD accredited Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) training programme are now being accepted.
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The next round of dates for the PPI training course have been released as 5th March - 2nd April 2025. The training takes place via MS Teams for 2 hours, every week for 5 weeks at a cost of £250.
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The programme is aimed at anyone who feels they need to begin or develop their Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) knowledge and are looking for detailed learning and development in this area of their work.
The programme considers the experience of PPI from the perspective of researchers delivering what is asked of them. From initial understanding through to exploring detailed scenarios and working with compassion and understanding in their work.
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Refocus on Recovery conference abstract submission closes this month
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The 7th Refocus on Recovery conference is taking place in September 2025 and the call for abstracts is open until the end of this month.
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The conference will be organised around three themes:
- Theme 1 – The role of lived experience in embedding and supporting recovery
- Theme 2 – New perspectives around mental health and recovery
- Theme 3 – Extending recovery beyond mental health
Abstracts can be submitted to any of these themes and can be presented as an oral presentation or a poster and lightning talk.
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IMH Publication Awards 2024 closes at the end of the month
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The Awards aim to celebrate and promote the research work from people within the Trust and the University of Nottingham working in the fields of mental health or learning disability.
Nominations can be submitted by the author or by others (professors are not eligible for awards). A publication may be submitted in more than one category but can only win one award. The publication must have been published in electronic or hard copy format in the calendar year 1 January - 31 December 2024.
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The citizen science mental health (C-STACS) project requires your feedback
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Following the Citizen Science Mental Health project which happened over 2024, the team are now looking for feedback regarding taking part in research. Your feedback will help the team understand what worked well and what could be improved and guide us in designing future mental health citizen science initiatives.
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The TrueBlue Clinical study using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect early-stage post-natal depression is now accepting participants
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The TrueBlue Clinical study is the first international study assessing the potential use of an AI processing . The study is recruiting volunteers from 12 weeks pregnant to 12 weeks postpartum, to use TrueBlue on their mobile devices; aiming to assess whether the app can detect early-stage mood change within the perinatal period, including early detection of post-natal depression
The technology behind this trial has been developed by the study's partner BlueSkeye AI, in close collaboration with academics at the University of Nottingham, experts in Public Patient Involvement (PPI) and senior clinicians in specialist mood disorders and perinatal psychiatry at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
More information can be found on the Institute website
For anyone interested in the trial, please contact the team at TrueBlue@nottingham.ac.uk or call 0115 748 6749.
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Psychological therapy Readiness and resourcing in Oncology – Support to Promote an Enhanced Response (PROSPER) has started recruiting participants.
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This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a Therapy Preparation Intervention – a one-time clinician-led session followed by automated smart messaging – for adult patients in cancer care awaiting psychological therapy for moderate-to-severe depression. The researchers are particularly interested to see how it affects patients’ depressive symptoms, quality of life, and therapy dropout rates.
To find out more visit the NIHR trial page, or reach out to study researchers prosper@nottingham.ac.uk if you would like to get involved.
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The Art of Mental Stealth and Making Connections
collaborative exhibition by Institute fellow Jo Lockwood, Ignite!, Sealight Studios, Outburst (16-21 LGBTQ+ youth group at Base 51) and graphics students from NTU Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies
22nd January - 21st March
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The Art of Mental Stealth… a comic approach was a project that thought creatively about how to deliver mental health messaging and interventions for young people in Nottingham, by nurturing creative skills in visual storytelling as a bridge to self-awareness, expression and shared understanding.
The project kickstarted a city-wide conversation exploring intersections between comics/graphic novels and mental health interventions, the therapeutic potential of creation, and how young artists are already merging these worlds.
Making Connections documents the creative process of developing a comic on the topic of mental health and what was involved in translating the story and words provided by young people at Outburst into illustrated pages created by graphics students at Confetti.
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Centre for Dementia Seminar: How might Artificial Intelligence (AI) imagine dementia?
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📅 Wednesday 12th February 2025, 11:30 - 12:30
📍 Online via MS Teams🎟️ Free to attend, please contact Nichole.Veloso@nottingham.ac.uk to register
Dr Emma Putland, a Senior Research Associate working on the ‘Public Discourses of Dementia’ project at Lancaster University, will present recent research analysing AI-generated representations of dementia. The talk considers how artificial intelligence (AI) models have the potential to generate outputs that reproduce particular stereotypes and social biases surrounding dementia.
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Cohort 2: Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Training Programme
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📅 5th March 2025 - 2nd April
2 hours, every Wednesday for 5 weeks
📍 Online via MS Teams🎟️ £250
📥 More information on the IMH website
This CPD accredited programme has been designed to increase knowledge of active researchers and colleagues in health and care research and provide time for you to engage and build your collective confidence in a shared learning space.
The programme considers the experience of PPI from the perspective of researchers delivering what is asked of them.
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Creative Survival: Books Really Can Save Lives - An Evening with Prof Paul Crawford
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📅 Thursday 13th March 2025, 18:30 - 21:00
📍 Nottingham Central Library
🎟️ £7*, please purchase your ticket online here
* ticket includes a free refreshment📥 More information on the IMH website
Join the Director of the Centre for Social Futures Professor Paul Crawford at Nottingham Central Library to hear about his new book 'The Wonders of Doctor Bent' and how engaging in stories, writing and reading more generally can have a positive impact on mental health.
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ADHD SENCO Teacher Training Course
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📅 Wednesday 19th March 2025, 09:00 - 13:00
📍 Institute of Mental Health🎟️ £100 per SENCO. 3 hour in-person half-day workshop
📥 More information on the IMH website
Why should SENCOs take the course?
Special Education Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) play a key role in the development of SEN policy and code of practise in schools, and it is crucial that they are knowledgeable in all aspects of SEN.
We have created a new ‘train the trainer’ method to educate whole schools about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
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ORBIT Commissioner Event 2025
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📅 Wednesday 26th March 2025, 09:00 - 15:30
📍 Jubilee Conference Centre🎟️ Free, but you must register to attend
📥 More information on the IMH website
Improving care for tic disorders with a NICE recommended & evidence-based digital behavioural intervention.
Join the team for the opportunity to:
- Learn more about ORBIT
- Share your expertise on the challenges and best practice of commissioning digital health interventions
- Discuss cost effectiveness and NHS implementation
- Network with industry peers
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Mental Health Mission: Forum for Mental Health Technology Innovators
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📅 Thursday 27th March 2025, 10:30 - 16:30
📍 Central Liverpool
🎟️ Free, but you must register to attend📥 More information on the Mental Health Mission website, view the event poster online here
Connect innovators in the mental health technology sector with NHS innovation teams. Discuss developing mental health technology, meet academics and researchers and explore demonstrations of mental health tech under development.
Speakers and demonstrators include:
Prof Jeremy Hall, Manjul Rathee (BfB Labs), Floria van der Breggen (SyncVR) and Dr Matteo Cella (Kings College London).
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Hidden in Plain Sight: research and clinical update on ADHD in girls and women
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📅 Thursday 27th March 2025, 09:30 - 15:00
📍 Jubilee Conference Centre🎟️ £40 *Support with entry fee can be provided on an ad-hoc basis
📥 More information on the Institute website
Join ADHD specialists and researchers at the Hidden in Plain Sight Conference - for a deep dive into gender differences in ADHD.
The event includes dynamic presentations from top researchers, clinicians, and women with lived experience and a networking lunch, followed by interactive workshops.
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AQUEDUCT Dissemination and Reflection Event
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📅 Thursday 17th April 2025, 10:30 - 15:30
📍 Institute of Mental Health🎟️ Free to attend, but your place must be registered
The AQUEDUCT team are pleased to invite you to their Dissemination and Reflection Event.
They will share their findings as well as recognise and celebrate the contributions of clinical staff members and NHS research delivery and innovation departments from across England who took part in the Achieving Quality and Effectiveness in Dementia Using Crisis Teams (AQUEDUCT) research programme.
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4th Mental Diversity Law Conference: The Future of Mental Health Law
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📅 3rd and 4th July 2025
📍 Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham, NG8 1BB🎟️ Full: £295
Student and Concessionary: £145
* Registration opens 12th February 2025
Topics include:
Neurodivergence, BAME communities, social care and the law for children and young people,
Call for academic papers
If you would like to share your academic research at the conference please submit a summary of what your research is about
Academic papers can now be submitted online for the 2025 conference.
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7th international Refocus on Recovery conference
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📅 4th and 5th September 2025
📍 Crowne Plaza, Nottingham, NG1 5RH🎟️ Two days in person: £300
Concession: £150
Online: £60
📥 More information on the Institute website
The conference will be organised around three themes, developed with the event partners:
Theme 1 – The role of lived experience in embedding and supporting recovery
Theme 2 – New perspectives around mental health and recovery
Theme 3 – Extending recovery beyond mental health
Abstracts can now be submitted for the conference.
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We would love to hear from you.
Please visit our website or follow us on our social media pages to
keep up to date with our news and updates. |
The Institute of Mental Health brings together healthcare staff and academics to lead mental health research designed to improve diagnosis, treatment, and care. We are a partnership between two highly respected organisations, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Nottingham. |
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@institutemh institutemh.org.uk
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