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New programme to train future mental health and neuroscience professionals

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Mental health.

Future healthcare professionals working in mental health and neurosciences will be trained at a new Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) thanks to a multi-million award from Wellcome.

Led by the University of Nottingham, the new DTP is a collaboration between the Universities of Nottingham, Leicester, Birmingham and Warwick.

Wellcome has awarded over £7.24 million to the University of Nottingham to establish the Midlands Mental Health and Neurosciences PhD Programme for Healthcare Professionals which will begin its training programme in October 2022. The unique partnership will lead the innovative multidisciplinary training centre that will develop the next generation of NHS research leaders across the workforce.

The centre will also be supported by a number of NHS Trusts in the Midlands including BHP member Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, as well as Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust; Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust; University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust; Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust; Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundations Trust and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Through 25 PhD scholarships focused on mental health (MH) and neurosciences (N), students will have the opportunity to research a ‘theme’ representing the lifespan (children, young people and perinatal MH; common MH; severe MH; dementia; and physical health comorbidity with MH), using specific bio-psycho-social approaches.

Healthcare profession-specific mentors will ensure scholars remain connected to their primary professional groups. Scholars will leave the programme as well-rounded clinical-academics with high-levels of MH&N research acumen, and enhanced communication and leadership skills.

Professor Roshan das Nair from the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham and the Institute of Mental Health, is Director of the Centre. He said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won this award, which is a huge achievement for our four universities and the NHS Trusts with whom we work, and is a testament to teamwork. Our Doctoral Training Programme will advance the mental health and neuroscience research we conduct here in the Midlands.

“This award will enable us to share the excellent resources we have across the partner universities and NHS Trusts to develop the next generation of multidisciplinary clinical academics in mental health and neurosciences, and support their research. Our Doctoral Training Programme will create an ambitious Midlands-based, internationally connected, clinical-academic ecosystem. Through our collaborations, we hope to address the key contemporary mental health challenges our societies face.”

Professor Matthew Broome, Director of the Institute for Mental Health at the University of Birmingham, said: “Our population in the Midlands suffers from significant health inequalities, with high rates of mental health challenges. This training centre is a huge opportunity to address these challenges, increase our research capacity in mental health and neuroscience, and develop a diverse group of clinical academics from a wide range of professional groups, including nursing, social work, occupational therapy, pharmacy, medicine, and psychology.”

New study aims to improve healthcare for pregnant women with multiple health conditions

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Health inequalities, Inflammation and chronic disease, Maternal health, Mental health.

BHP founder-member the University of Birmingham is leading a new three-year UK-wide study aimed at improving healthcare and outcomes for pregnant women who have two or more active long-term health conditions.

Currently, one in five pregnant women in the UK have two or more active long-term health conditions. These can be both physical conditions (like diabetes or raised blood pressure), and mental health conditions (such as depression or anxiety). Often women also have to take several medications to manage their different health needs.

The new study, called Multimorbidity and Pregnancy: Determinants, Clusters, Consequences and Trajectories (MuM-PreDiCT), aims to use data-driven research to characterise and understand what makes having two or more long-term conditions more likely for pregnant women and the consequences for mother and child; and to predict and prevent adverse outcomes.

MuM-PreDiCT will be divided into five research work packages:

      1. Examining how health conditions accumulate over time and identifying what makes a woman more at risk of developing two or more long-term health conditions before pregnancy.
      2. Exploring women’s experiences of care during pregnancy, birth and after birth, working together with families and health professionals to establish how care could be improved.
      3. Deeper delve into how having two or more long-term health conditions may affect pregnant women and their children by identifying outcomes that women, health professionals and researchers feel should be reported in research; examining how often women experience pregnancy complications; and exploring how frequently women and their children develop additional long-term ill health
      4. Investigating how taking combinations of medication may affect pregnant women with two or more long-term health conditions and their babies.
      5. Building a prediction model to help identify how likely a previously healthy pregnant woman will develop multiple long-term conditions after pregnancy.

Professor Krish Nirantharakumar, of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Applied Health Research and Principal Investigator of MuM-PreDiCT, said: “Having two or more health conditions is becoming more common in pregnant women as women are increasingly older when they start having a family and as obesity and mental health conditions are on the rise in general.

“However, we don’t really understand what the consequences are of multiple health conditions or medications for mothers and babies.

“This can make pregnancy, healthcare and managing medications more complicated. Without deeper understanding of the problem, women with several long-term health conditions may not have the best and safest experience of care before, during and after pregnancy because services have not been designed with their health needs in mind.”

Dr Beck Taylor, Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham and Co-Investigator of MuM-PreDiCT, said: “Our research will provide valuable information to help women and clinicians make informed decisions and identify points for prevention and intervention. We will also explore the experiences of maternity care for women with two or more long-term conditions and work with families and health and social care professionals to produce recommendations on how to plan and design services that meet the needs of women and their families before, during and after pregnancy.”

MuM-PreDiCT is being funded via the £20M UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) initiative ‘Tackling multi-morbidity at scale: Understanding disease clusters, determinants & biological pathways’. SPF is delivered by the Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research in partnership with the Economic and Social Research Council, and in collaboration with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It is jointly funded by UKRI and the Department of Health and Social Care, through the NIHR.

MuM-PreDiCT is being led by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with the University of Aberdeen, University of St Andrews, Swansea University, Queen’s University of Belfast, University of Ulster, The University of Manchester, Keele University, University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Siang Ing Lee, Academic Clinical Fellow at the University of Birmingham and MuM-PreDiCT, added: “We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our amazing patient and public involvement (PPI) advisory group and PPI co-investigators who will play an integral part in MuM-PreDiCT.”

£1.5m funding for youth mental health research

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Mental health.

The Institute for Mental Health at BHP founder member the University of Birmingham has been awarded £1.5M from the Wolfson Foundation to fund a research centre focused on supporting youth mental health.

The research team at the Institute for Mental Health work with NHS partners to understand the causes of poor mental health and to develop effective treatments, preventative strategies and services. The Institute draws upon expertise from across the University as well as from local, national, and international partners. This award from the Wolfson Foundation will help to create a physical space for individuals and groups from across the university and externally to come together and collaborate in a new purposely designed, shared place.

Professor Matthew Broome, Director of the Institute for Mental Health comments; “We are extremely grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for supporting our work through this new centre at the University of Birmingham. It will create a new space for researchers, postgraduate students, NHS colleagues and our youth advisory group to come together more effectively. We hope that this will provide the scientific environment and conditions that the Institute for Mental Health needs to accelerate our work to support and treat young people with mental ill health.”

Members of the Institute represent a breadth of academic fields including psychology, psychiatry, philosophy, health economics, epidemiology, geography, neuroscience, public health, sport and exercise science, and social policy. Collectively our researchers have developed new methodological approaches, drawing on different disciplines, and shared ideas across new groupings. These include validating machine-learning tools to predict outcome in early psychosis, pioneering approaches to examine immune mechanisms in mental ill health, and developing novel mixed-methods strategies, including social media data, to study self-harm.

Paul Ramsbottom, CEO of the Wolfson Foundation, said, “The Wolfson Foundation is delighted to be funding this crucial area of research. We were impressed by the quality of the proposed research and by its dynamic leadership. A real hallmark of the centre will be collaborative working: with partners across the UK and globally – but, perhaps even more important, with young people and civil society across Birmingham. We hope the research will have a significant impact in Birmingham – the city with the UK’s youngest demographic – and beyond.”

The Wolfson Foundation is an independent, grant-making charity with a focus on research and education. Its aim is to support civil society by investing in excellent projects in science, health, heritage, humanities and the arts across the UK. Find out more about the Wolfson Foundation –  https://www.wolfson.org.uk/