Professor Essi Viding on the future of mental health research

Mental health is one of the greatest societal challenges of our time. In the UK alone, it’s estimated about one in four of us will experience a mental health problem at some point each year. UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing aims to become a beacon for improvements in mental health and wellbeing through transformative cross-disciplinary research, practice and partnerships for prevention and early intervention.

In this video, Professor Essi Viding, Pro-Vice Provost Mental Health & Wellbeing, talks about the importance of interdisciplinary research for advancing our understanding of mental health disorders and how to treat them.

Psychological interventions – where people seek support early for mental health conditions - can be highly effective for many mental health conditions, particularly depression and anxiety.

In order to address the lack of systematic and effective prevention and early intervention, the Grand Challenges team launched the UCL and North London Mental Health Foundation Trust Partnership. The partnership is led from the UCL side by Professor David Osborn, and provides dedicated support for the development of new, timely interventions through joint activities and funding. It focuses on achieving equitable access and treatment, especially for young people, using interdisciplinary approaches.

Here, Professor Vidling shares more about the importance of research around interventions; understanding what works and what can done to influence the uptake of interventions.

This year, UCL’s Grand Challenge of Mental Health & Wellbeing disbursed over £430,000 in cross-disciplinary awards, including funding 18 pump-priming projects across nine Faculties.

Biography

Essi Viding is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology Research Department, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL. She is the Pro-Vice Provost for the Mental Health and Wellbeing Grand Challenge at UCL, together with Professor Argyris Stringaris, and chairs UCL’s Children and Young People’s Special Interest Group. She co-directs a research group, the Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit (DRRU), with Professor Eamon McCrory.