Brighton joins major new nationwide programme to boost mental health

Professor Angie Hart is leading the Brighton contribution to a five-year project involving 11 institutions around the UK. With overall funding of £35.4m, the overarching project is being led by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre and begins on 1 December.

Professor Hart's team will focus on a workstream entitled Flourishing & Wellbeing, drawing on expertise to enable initiatives and interventions for patients and non-patients, to be delivered in accessible and inclusive spaces beyond the clinic - such as communal public spaces and workplaces.

These initiatives will create inclusive real-world ‘laboratories’ bringing together ordinary people with academic experts in mental health issues to create practical and effective interventions that have been demonstrated to boost wellbeing and resilience at both an individual and wider community level. By helping ‘beat the odds’ for myriad individuals, the community-focused work carried out by the University of Brighton improves the odds for wider communities to cope with the day-to-day struggles many people are increasingly facing.

Professor Angie Hart

Boingboing resilience logo

One in four people will experience mental illnesses in their lifetime, and while some recover completely, many struggle for years with symptoms. The University of Brighton has been a pioneer in initiatives to find accessible and inclusive pathways to boost mental health in the community.

The University of Brighton partners with social enterprise network Boingboing which has, since 2005, brought together researchers and those with lived experience of complex mental health challenges to create and implement projects that work with a range of disadvantaged or overlooked groups.

One project that will be developed further as part of the new nationwide initiative is working with young people and adults with complex needs in Blackpool to push back against social disadvantage and inequalities that are rife in the region. As part of this, the University of Brighton team has co-produced Resilient Minds Toolkits, written in collaboration with young people and parents/carers to support youth resilience and mental health, co-producing guides for both a Blackpool and national context.

In addition to groundbreaking research in the UK, Professor Hart has also pioneered international initiatives including a community-based approach to supporting the mental health of children in Greek schools, and research studies working with young people facing complex challenges in South Africa

Boingboing partnership working with disadvantaged young people

Professor Angie Hart, Professor of Child, Family and Community Health at the University of Brighton and Director of the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice, said: “Our team at University of Brighton are looking forward to continuing to find creative ways to support people facing the most complex challenges in life to flourish. Crucially, our community based researchers in networks such as Boingboing have lived experience of complex life challenges, making them ideal partners to work alongside our academics to carry out research with real world potential to transform mental wellbeing nationwide."