The Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry is part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London. The Unit carries out an extensive research programme, in addition to providing undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.
In 2012, it was designated as a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development. Our research addresses concepts, methods and practice of social psychiatry and includes the following main themes:
- Global Mental Health
- Community Arts based approaches and methods
- Psychosocial interventions, including arts therapies
- DIALOG+ (a routine solution focused intervention)
- Social connectedness
- Mental Health Service Development
- Service user involvement and participatory approaches
The team uses a wide range of research methods including, large randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, naturalistic experiments, qualitative work and arts-based methods. This work involves interdisciplinary collaboration with social sciences, computer sciences and humanities. We value mutual learning and have an active programme of knowledge exchange, including seminars with internal and external collaborators, presentations and training.
Our work is funded by a range of funding bodies including, NIHR, EU Horizon, Research Councils (e.g., MRC, ESRC), Bart’s Charity, British Academy and more. Collectively we have generated more than £40m in the past 10 years in competitive research income.
The team is comprised of researchers from multiple backgrounds, including psychiatrists, arts therapists, nurses, epidemiologists, trialists and health services researchers. USCP is also involved in teaching at both QMUL and ELFT, and there are several PhD students supported within the Unit.
Additionally, we work closely with service users and carers with lived experience of mental distress and involve experts by experience in all aspects of our research.