St Mary’s Mental Health Research Group Awarded UKRI Grant

A research group from the School of Allied Health and Life Sciences at St Mary's University, Twickenham (SMU) has been awarded a grant of over £550,000 by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the European Commission as part of the wider RECONNECTED mental health intervention project. The project ultimately aims to inform policy decision making relating to mental health intervention that can be applied throughout Europe.

The St Mary’s research group led by Dr Arlinda Cerga Pashoja (Senior Lecturer in Psychology), along with Dr Asmae Doukani (Postdoctoral Researcher) and Samuel Lam (Research Fellow) will use this grant to explore the impact of global challenges on migrant populations in the UK, and assess customised interventions designed to improve mental wellbeing within this vulnerable group.

Speaking of the project, Dr Arlinda Cerga Pashoja said, “Researching mental well-being in migrant populations in the UK is crucial for understanding and addressing the unique challenges and vulnerabilities these communities face. This research not only enhances the quality of life for migrants but also contributes to building more inclusive and equitable healthcare systems for all members of society.”

The RECONNECTED project is led by Dr Annet Kleiboer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and involves 11 partners from nine different countries, including SMU. The RECONNECTED team works with local community stakeholders to expand and test a new theoretical framework of urban mental health.

The framework will provide actionable insights for policy decision making and be used to develop a digital support system featuring non-stigmatising mental health intervention tools.

These interventions work on both an individual and societal level, and will be delivered via the Moodbuster app, which is a secure mental health platform that will be using an interactive machine learning algorithm to identify personalised targets for micro-interventions targeting psychological resilience.

Once developed, the intervention will be tested in the UK through the SMU research group, focusing on migrant populations. The study will also run in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Kosovo, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, testing the feasibility and effectiveness of the Moodbuster app in local communities.