Mental Health Research Group

The Mental Health Research Group is led by Professor Christopher Dickens, who joined us in late summer 2011.  He also  is the lead for Mental Health and Dementia on the Management Board of PenCLAHRC.

The group met towards the end of 2011 to revise its Terms of Reference and agreed the purpose of the group will be:-

• To support and promote the academic activities of members of the group.
• To engage with other partner organisations relevant to mental health research.  Partner organisations to include academic, health and social care, and voluntary and private sector organisations.
• The group will serve strategic, pastoral and educational functions.

Strategically, the group will be responsible for developing a mental health research strategy built around existing strengths, and will link with regional partners to develop a wider mental health strategy for the South West.

Pastorally, the group will provide peer support to its members on issues such as grant writing, preparation of papers, career development, REF etc.

Educationally, the group will host regular events to promote mental health research, and will offer the opportunity for researchers of all grades to present their work and receive constructive feedback. These meetings will be in the form of regular monthly seminars and will be open to all interested parties, including the wider Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and NHS partners, but will be led by academic members of the MH research group.

Each year there will be 4 “high profile” seminars, where leaders in mental health research will be invited to speak about the latest developments in their field. The format is to be decided and may remain flexible, but the purpose of these meetings will be to engage a broader audience, to showcase related work being conducted by our own researchers and to get world-class feedback from the invited guests. These are likely to be half-day events.

Please see details of our Seminar Series listed in the upcoming events section.