Dr Rachel Hayes
Senior Research Fellow
R.A.Hayes@exeter.ac.uk
2978
+44 (0) 1392 722978
South Cloisters 2.05
South Cloisters, University of Exeter, St Luke's Campus, Heavitree Road, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK
Overview
I am a Senior Research Fellow working accross the Children and Young People's Mental Health Research Collaboration (ChYMe) and the Peninsula Mental Health Research Initiative (PenMHRI). I am interested in finding ways to support the emotional and social development of children and young adults. My focus has been evaluating complex interventions with families, schools and health services.
Within my work at PenARC (https://arc-swp.nihr.ac.uk/) I co-lead PenMHRI (https://arc-swp.nihr.ac.uk/research/projects/penmhri/) to identify key areas of uncertainty between local needs and mental health research which can be addressed either through conducting primary research or by adapting existing evidence to improve services. I do this by building relationships and connections with mental health services and public collaborators working in the South West, with a view to developing research partnerships.
I am a professional author with the organisation MindEd who provide free educational resources on children and young people's mental health for any adult who works with them, for example, parents, teachers, therapists. I regularly work with children's charities such as the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and The Children's Society. I am also a research advisor for Place2Be and was delighted to be invited to be a judge on the Place2Be Wellbeing in Schools Awards 2019.
Qualifications
BSc Psychology
MSc Psychological Research Methods
PhD
Career
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Research interest in the promotion of good mental health in young people and families, with a particular focus on prevention and school based intervention
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Managed large successful trials of complex health interventions, main outcomes published in high quality scientific journals
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A Ph.D. in developmental psychology investigating young infant’s perception of speech sounds
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Experienced in all aspects of research – design, funding, implementation, analysis and dissemination
Links
Research group links
Research
Research interests
Mental Health
Developmental Psychology
Clinical Psychology
School Based Research
Research projects
I co-lead The Peninsula Mental Health Research Initiative (PenMHRI) which aims to help tackle the existing gap between local needs and mental health research activity. Our programme aims to establish a South West Mental Health Research Programme to promote close working with mental health services and public collaborators to build research capacity in the region. It’s our aim that the programme increases the capacity of the system to deliver high quality research in mental health of direct relevance to service delivery and to improve services by better use of evidence. We want to work with partners including those with lived experience, practitioners and organisations to identify key areas of uncertainty which can be addressed either through research or by adapting existing evidence to improve services. We anticipate that our programme staff will work with these partners to deliver research projects and will seek external funding to address major research questions. An important part of the programme is the new Mental Health Associates strand, which offers an opportunity for people within the local system to develop their research/improvement skills during part-time secondments where they will address important problems facing their own organisations.
I have over 20 years working in psychological research, initially exploring cognitive developmental psychology and more recently mental health. I work the the Children and Young People's Mental Health Research Collaboration (ChYMe) here at Exeter.
I am leading the Exeter site's involvement in the Stand Together Trial (https://standtogethertrial.weebly.com/) which is a large randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating whether a school based anti-bullying programme called KiVa reduces levels of bullying in UK primary schools and if so, whether it results in improvements in children’s mental health, school liking and attendance, and teacher confidence in dealing with bullying. We are working with 120 primary schools in four areas; i) North Wales and Cheshire, ii) the West Midlands, iii) South East and iv) South West England. Half of the schools will be randomly selected to use the KiVa programme, the remaining 60 schools continue with teaching as usual and will not access the programme during that school year.
I have worked with a number of different people in the Mood Disorders Centre (University of Exeter) including Heather O'Mahen and Kim Wright investigating group BA's efficacy for the treatment of depression, Tom Lynch looking at emotional sensitivity, and developing an on-line CBT programme for post-natal depression. The largest RCTs to date that I have managed are the CTIMP PREVENT trial which explored the relationship between mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and maintenance antidepressant medication (m-ADM) in preventing depression relapse / recurrence for patients with a history of recurrent depression (CI: Prof Willem Kuyken) and the STARS trials, one and two, which are both cluster RCT exploring the impact of the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) programme in primary schools in England with Prof Tamsin Ford.
Stand Together: https://standtogethertrial.weebly.com/
Research grants
- 2022 NIHR Programme Grant
Teenage depression knocks normal development off course and damages family relationships. Young people are more likely to get recurrent depression than people first depressed as adults. We need more options for young people who still have symptoms after treatment or relapse quickly, so we developed Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers (MAC). Mindfulness-based cognitive-therapy (MBCT) is now an established treatment for adults with recurrent depression, yet is untested with young people. MAC is teenager friendly MBCT, which could helps young people avoid recurrent depression, and so reduce damage to their life chances and future health. This programme will have five parts that aim to: 1. Finalise training for practitioners to deliver MAC 2. Co-produce an app to support mindfulness skills practice 3. Test whether MAC works and is value for money 4. Find out how MAC works and for whom it works best 5. Understand how best we can scale up MAC - 2020 National Institute for Health Research
A combined mindfulness-based approach for adolescent non-responders to first-line treatments of depression or anxiety and their carers: establishing feasibility of implementation and delivery. - 2019 National Institute for Health Research
A multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of KiVa to reduce bullying in primary schools: The UK KiVa Trial - 2018 Education Endowment Foundation
EEF - Review of Evidence on Behaviour
Links
- HIFAMS Questionnaire
- STARS Study
- Using nature based approaches to treatment in CAMHS
- CAMHS RISE - involving children and young people in research
- Collaborative approaches to supporting the mental health needs of those experiencing homeless
- PenMHRI
- Using foodbanks as a way to provide mental health support
- The Stand Together Trial
Publications
Journal articles
Chapters
Conferences
External Engagement and Impact
I am a professional author with the organisation MindEd who provide free educational resources on children and young people's mental health for any adult who works with them, for example, parents, teachers, therapists. I regularly work with the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) who are an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. I am also a research advisor for Place2Be and was delighted to be invited to be a judge on the Place2Be Wellbeing in Schools Awards 2019.