Are chatbots the answer to minimising inequalities in treatment access?

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Robert Meadows considers the findings of a recent paper on the use of artificial intelligence chatbots in increasing self-referrals to mental health services.

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“Let me see a therapist”: mental health support for asylum seekers and refugees

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KCL Masters student Daniella Mousicos summarises a qualitative study exploring whether asylum seekers and refugees are provided with appropriate mental health support in Brighton and Hove.

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Unjust: how inequality and mental health intertwine

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Andy Bell reflects on a recent peer research study and shares the steps that any mental health service can take to help people reclaim their rights, their personhood, and their equal citizenship.

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Adverse childhood experiences: how common are they and who is most at risk?

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In this joint blog, Becca Lacey and Sarah Stock explore a recent meta-analysis on the global prevalence of adverse childhood experiences, which looks at the groups of people most at risk of experiencing them.

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There is a clear association between socioeconomic deprivation and self-harm

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A group of UCL masters student review a multi-centre study on socio-economic disparities in patients who present to hospital for self-harm in England, which found large variations in patients characteristics and pre-self-harm experiences.

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We need a whole system approach to tackling early childhood inequality: new research on health and educational outcomes in adolescence

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In her debut blog, Dr Huong Le evaluates a UK population-based retrospective cohort study investigating the impact of early childhood disadvantage on a variety of adverse health and educational outcomes in adolescence.

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Care or punishment? Black service users’ experiences of inpatient mental health care under detention

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Ian Cummins summarises findings from a recent qualitative study by Solanki et al. (2023), which explores the experiences of individuals from Black Ethnic backgrounds detained under the Mental Health Act (1983).

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Mental health care and the benefits system: linked data provides opportunities for new research

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Becky Appleton explores the potential of new data linkage opportunities for understanding the intersection between mental health service use and receipt of benefits in a South London service user population.

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Connecting with parents and carers to discuss childhood mental health: does ‘universal’ actually mean targeted?

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Educational practitioner and researcher, Aleem Nisar, writes about the people and places in our communities that can help to diversify our research and ensure that mental health services reach those most in need.

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