Lucy A. Warriner

Profile

Lucy completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology (BSc Hons) and later graduated with a Masters in Cognitive Neuroscience (MSc).

Her previous academic work was on the MYRIAD Project which was a large randomised control trial evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a mindfulness training programme to enhance mental health, wellbeing and social-emotional behavioural functioning in adolescence.

Research interests

Reseach Interests

Lucy’s research interests centre on global adolescent mental health and the utilisation of school and community settings to promote young people’s wellbeing and resilience. In particularly addressing the need to establish acceptable and sustainable interventions for specifically low-to-middle income countries.

Current research

The SAMA Project: Safeguarding Adolescent Mental Health in India

Lucy is currently a research assistant on a MRC / ESRC / UK Aid  / NIHR funded project (Jan 2021-Jan 2024) in collaboration with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India, and involving multiple Indian and UK partners. It is estimated that 9.8 million Indian 13-17 year olds have a diagnosable mental health condition and suicide is the leading cause of death among adolescents. Project SAMA (meaning equal in Sanskrit) aims to develop and test a whole school, systems based interventions to provide Indian adolescents with information and strategies to take care of their mental health and to improve school cultures and family knowledge to support well-being. In Year 1 of SAMA, we will co-design or co-adapt interventions with young people, parents,teachers, school leaders, mental health professional, policy makers and representatives from Indian health and education departments. We will build on international evidence and interventions. We will co-design four interventions that (1) help young people understand and manage their own mental health, especially anxiety and depression; (2) help teachers reduce their use of corporal punishment and improve their understanding of adolescent mental health; (3) improve the school climate for mental health and reduce mental health stigma; and (4) improve parents' understanding ofadolescent mental health to support their young person. We will develop plans to implement and evaluate these interventions, with close attention to training people who deliver them and how to prepare an intervention's 'soft landing' in school to increase chances of success. Year 2 will be a feasibility and acceptability study of the intervention, alongside a mental health campaign using social media and film to improve mental health literacy in multiple sectors. In Year 3, we will work with the communities to learn about what we need to do to improve interventions so that we can build towards a trial to determine if the interventions are effective. SAMA will also learn how to increase the use of evidence on school mental health programmes in Indian health policy.

Qualifications

• MSc. Cognitive Neuroscience
• BSc. Psychology