Innovating methods to understand worsening trends and persisting inequalities in mental health

This project merges experimental, socio-political, epidemiological, and developmental methods to advance understanding and prevention of worsening mental ill-health.

Project Summary

The last few decades have seen worsening trends in mental ill-health in many countries, and socio-demographic inequalities are either widening or remain persistent. There is still a lack of robust causal evidence or research exploring the mechanisms underlying the worsening distress and persisting inequalities. Hypothesised reasons for these trends remain narrowly conceived and poorly evidenced. There is a pressing need for methods that integrate experimental and socio-political methods and ideas with epidemiological and developmental approaches to drive meaningful breakthroughs in understanding and preventing worsening mental ill-health. 

The solution or approach proposed can be summarised as: 
1) Building bridges between disciplines that traditionally have not worked together on this challenge to explore new explanations and untested hypotheses 
2) Using experiments to test epidemiological hypotheses 
3) Linking different and new sources of data to evidence novel explanations for trends and persistent inequalities in mental health 

This project involves four strands of work, each taking a novel approach to testing a distinct idea or method AND providing proof of concept for future projects or programmes of work for which external funding will be sought.