About
Research
Email: arlinda.cergapashoja@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 07787 447507
Biography
Arlinda is a mental health researcher with background in psychology and special interest in the development, evaluation and implementation of digital interventions for mental health. She is the UK-Principal Investigator of ImpleMentall and MENTUPP. Both projects are funded by the European Commissions's Horizon 2020 programme and Arlinda is leading the research work in South Eastern Europe i.e. Albania and Kosova, where there is a dearth of evidence base and research activity.
Arlinda has completed a research PhD with the department of Primary Care and Population Health at University College London and an MSc in Mental Health Services Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (Kings College, London). The PhD explored the effectiveness of a dyadic programme of walking in the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. The study was called Evidem-E and was part of a programme grant funded by the National Institute for Health Research.
Arlinda has previously held both clinical and research posts with different NHS trusts (South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust, Central and North West London Foundation Trust) in the UK. These posts involved working in a variety of clinical and research settings, such as PTSD clinics, Learning Disabilities Teams and Old Age services.
Arlinda has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is passionate about delivering student-centred teaching and utilising technology-enhanced learning to deliver enriched activities to diverse learner profiles.
Arlinda is currently the module convenor for the Research Methods module under the MSc Psychology of Mental Health.
Research
Areas of research supervision
- digital mental health
- dementia
- humanitarian mental health
- global mental health
Research profile
Arlinda's research work in the last 10 years has focused on digital interventions for mental health. She is the UK-Principal Investigator for MENTUPP, which aims to improve mental health in the workplace by developing, implementing and evaluating a multilevel intervention targeting mental health difficulties in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the construction, health and ICT sectors.
Arlinda has previously been the Principal Investigator of ImpleMentall, an EC-funded consortium that aims to implement digital interventions for common mental health problems in the EU and Australia. Arlinda is leading the research work in Albania and Kosova, where community mental health teams are implementing an intervention called I Fight Depression as a treatment for mild and moderate depression. She has also managed an EC-funded, multinational RCT called E-Compared, which evaluated the effectiveness of blending computer-supported therapy for depression with face-to-face CBT sessions in 13 European countries.
As a researcher, Arlinda has previously led a multi-national RCT funded by the European Commission (EC) called Openbook EN, which aimed to develop software that assisted the reading abilities of people with autistic spectrum disorders in the UK, Bulgaria and Spain. She also provided research assistance on CONNECT, a multicentre, European-wide project that investigated the costs and outcomes of healthcare in people suffering from PTSD following war in the Balkans. This project was funded by the EC and hosted by Queen Mary University of London.
Arlinda has been invited to and featured in podcasts and over 10 media broadcasts on national TV in Albania and Kosova.