Mina Fazel

The main focus of my research is on how to improve access to mental health interventions for younger populations. My current interest is in school-based mental health interventions and we have been running the OxWell School Survey since 2019 as a way to better understand what young people need and also what they want. We were able to collect data on over 19,000 young people as part of this survey in 2020  and have 6 regional authorities participating in the 2021 survey which is planned to be conducted in schools in May 2021. We worked with young advisors to ensure all our findings have been shared with school pupils. 

In addition, I am working with an incredible group of researchers on some other projects, all involved in interventions and implementation- hence we call ourselves 'Team Intervene' and we welcome you to join us if you have interests in this area. We are working on a Global Mental Health Databank project funded by the Wellcome Trust examining which data governance models are most acceptable to young people for the collection and curation of data. We are trying to ensure that young people's voices and opinions are fully informing our work and as this is a project in the UK, India and South Africa we hope the work is relevant across as many different contexts as possible.  Furthermore, we are examining the many different Mental Health Apps that have been developed and what ensures successful implementation of these Apps for the populations they are targeted to assist. We are using these measures to better understand the implementation for young people of the MyMoodCoach App developed as part of the EcoWeb trial.

I am also working with the  Oxford ARC to evaluate the changes in child mental health services across the region. I am interested in barriers to accessing mental health services and have previously spent some time at the Ethox Centre on a Catherine Miles Scholarship to explore some of the ethical challenges of mental health provision in schools, and am currently writing up some really interesting findings.

Our Lancet Psychiatry series on school mental health interventions are freely available online and can be found here: http://www.thelancet.com/series/mental-health-interventions-schools 

We have also made a new poster for schools on 'COPING WITH YOUR LOW MOOD' which is free to download and can be printed or emailed to students and staff. 

Refugee mental health needs have been a longstanding interest. I have conducted work on the epidemiology of and the risk and protective factors for mental health problems in refugee children, I am concerned about the psychological impacts of immigration detention and have an active interest in Narrative Exposure Therapy for PTSD. For Children's Mental Health Week 2019 we have made a 6-part Podcast Series on Mental Health Interventions for Refugee Children aimed at anyone wanting to learn more about the needs of these children. Do listen!

I previously had an NIHR post-doctoral fellowship to develop a mental health toolbox for schools that any front-line worker, even if they do not have a mental health background, can utilise in the school setting (just put online). Traditional mental health services might not access over half of the children who require services and given that a substantial proportion of mental illness starts before the age of 18, it is essential to find innovative ways for services to work in order to maximise children's emotional, cognitive and social development.

My clinical work is as a child and adolescent psychiatrist in the Department of Children's Psychological Medicine at the Children's Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals. 

Links to publications can be found here or via ResearchGate