Miranda has been the lead investigator for 'The MEND Study' and will be the co-lead investigator for MEND II. Miranda is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who currently works as an Associate Network Director for Psychological Therapies (Adults and North locality) in Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, based in Manchester. She has worked in mental healthcare for 25 years, being a qualified Clinical Psychologist for 16 years.
Miranda has had a varied career, working across inpatient, residential, education, forensic, custodial and community settings with adults and adolescents. Working systemically and applying attachment and trauma theory is an area of special interest for Miranda, but so is working at a preventative, early intervention level.
Gita is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. She currently works in Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust’s Traumatic Stress Service, is the Co-Chair for the Psychological Professions Network North West and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester.
Gita trained in Glasgow and clinically specialised in working with adults and older adults. Her current clinical work is in a specialist Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Service in Lancashire. In addition to contributing to the MEND study, she recently contributed as a co-investigator on a NIHR RfPB funded research project on Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Psychosis with further research development underway.
From 2006 to 2023, Gita was the Director for Psychological Professions at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust, with professional responsibility for psychological professions staff across the lifespan and a range of settings. Alongside this role within the Trust, Gita also implemented a supervision system for all staff, developed the staff wellbeing portfolio and during Covid, set up the county-wide staff wellbeing service: The Resilience Hub.
Gita was a founding member of the Psychological Professions Network (PPN) which started in the North West in 2013. From 2018 to 2023, she undertook a range of projects and roles with Health Education England including National Psychological Professions Development Lead. In the North West, Gita has been part of an innovative new roles project seeking to improve psychological professions workforce supply.
Gita has contributed to and chaired committees for the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and was also a member of the Guideline Development Group for the PTSD Guidelines update. In addition, she has been a member of a number of BPS Division of Clinical Psychology Faculties and Groups over the past 25 years.
Umesh is a Professor of Primary Care within the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and GP partner in East Lancashire.
Umesh is Place Quality Lead for Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and standing member of the NICE Quality Standards Advisory Committee.
Kathryn is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Psychology and Humanities at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and is well-published in the fields of self-harm, complex emotional and relational needs (CERN) and other aspects of mental health. Kathryn's interest in the social-cognitive aspects of CERN has led to collaborations with clinicians delivering Mentalisation Based Treatment (MBT).
Kathryn works alongside many individuals with experience and knowledge of self-harm, including experts-by-experience, academics and clinicians. These collaborations shape projects addressing various issues, including the functions and processes underlying self-harm and care providers' understanding and management of self-harm.
Kathryn is co-founder and co-lead of Suicide and Self-harm Research North West (embed), a partnership between UCLan, Liverpool John Moores University, The University of Manchester, the Manchester self-harm project, the Cheshire and Wirral partnership NHS Trust and the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) SSHaRe NoW was launched in June 2017 to bring together stakeholders (e.g. clinicians, service-users) with a shared interest in suicide and self-harm research and initiatives.
Kathryn's research uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods, allowing Kathryn to also support or lead NHS clinical service evaluations. Kathryn's earlier work concentrated on emotional intelligence (EI), with some of this work lying at the forefront of debate around whether the construct can be measured validly.
Mark is the Statistician for 'The MEND Study', advising on the study methodology, analysing the data and preparing the results.
Mark is a Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics at the University of Manchester, although his work is mainly research-focused. He is based in the Centre for Primary Care and has more than 25 years' experience working with primary care related data-sets. Mark worked for the Research Design Service between 2010 and 2023, advising on study design and statistics. He is always keen to hear about opportunities to work alongside and support research teams as a Statistician in this way.
Farah is a Global Mental Health Research Manager with a keen interest in maternal mental health research and improving inclusivity to research. Farah has worked within the research and development team at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust since October 2012. She is currently the Research Operations Manager and is responsible for overall oversight and management of research at LSCft. Farah has been the allocated sponsor representative for 'The MEND Study'.
Farah's research focus is on raising awareness of mental health, reducing ethnic disparities, tackling stigma and adapting psychological therapies to meet the needs of ethnic minorities. She was the trial manager on the NIHR funded ROSHNI2 trial (NIHR HTA 14/68/08). ROSHNI-2 was a rigorous, large-scale trial with diverse South Asian communities across the UK. Challenging the commonplace notion of 'hard to reach and easy to ignore', ROSHNI-2 implemented multi-faceted community engagement strategies to build trust, to engage other family members and to de-stigmatise mental health issues in South Asian communities. Farah is keen to build on this work and ensure work on Mental Health Prevention and Promotion includes continuous reflection on inclusivity and improving access to treatment for underrepresented communities.
Andrew is a Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), leading the NIHR ARCNWC MIDAS theme and the Synthesis, Economic Evaluations and Decision Science Group at UCLan. Previously he led Southampton Health Technology Assessments Centre (University of Southampton), 2002 to 2014, supporting the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance and guidelines programmes. Andrew’s research interests focus on the use of methods for evidence synthesis and economic evaluations in decision-making regarding the provision of health and social care.
Valerio is a Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in the Applied Health Research Hub. He is part of the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Group and works on health-related projects, focusing on economic and statistical analysis. His educational background is mainly in economics and statistics, and he has specialised in health economics.
The MEND has benefitted from Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) along the research journey, with a co-applicant being an expert-by-experience.
Sarah Connell has been an active PPI member throughout the study.
“I'm Sarah and I first became part of the mental health system after the sudden passing of my mother 6 years ago. The shock was sudden and I realised that I needed help to allow me to continue with a normal happy and fulfilling life. The worst part was admitting that maybe I did need help to understand the effect that things were taking on not only myself but the people around me.
I have been to many counselling sessions and I am well on the road to recovery but still have slight blips which now I can handle by using my coping skills or a quick call to the Mental Health Team. The sessions taught me coping skills that suit me and to never be afraid to ask for extra help. I was asked if I would like to join the MEND Study which I was more than happy to do. I do know from experience that there is a lot of stigma with admitting you have mental health issues but, there are so many variations of mental health that it can be confusing.
I would like to just raise awareness and encourage people to realise that this is a confidential service and to not be afraid of the system. The Mental Health System does need updating and easier access should be available to all, plus the availability for follow ups if required. I do believe that for me it has really made a difference and I would just hope that in time people would come forward and get the support that is out there.”
