Thrive LDN in new collaboration with academic and research institutions

Thrive LDN in collaboration with academic and research institutions has joined a new UK network to boost the role of research and the use of data to improve population health

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has established Population Health Improvement UK (PHI-UK), investing £35 million over four years. Its mission is to improve health and reduce health inequalities through the development and evaluation of long-lasting interventions.

Through shared leadership with Kings College London, Thrive LDN has established a new nation-wide Population Mental Health Consortium (PMHC) which will aim to create new opportunities for population-based improvements in mental health across the UK. The focus will be on children and young people, suicide and self-harm prevention and multiple long-term conditions.

The Consortium has received over £7m of funding from UKRI, and includes Thrive LDN, King’s College London, University College London, Middlesex University, Swansea University, Ulster University, University of Manchester, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS and Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands.

Dan Barrett, Thrive LDN director and co-lead of PMHC said: “This is a fantastic opportunity, and over the next four years, we will work with researchers and data analysts to galvanise a strong partnership with people with lived experience, public health professionals, local government, voluntary organisations to identify and evaluate population-level interventions.

“Thrive LDN’s partnerships with academia continues to grow, and through this consortium and our innovative approach, we have the potential to unlock deeper understanding about what interventions work, what doesn’t and why. Through linking data and research directly with lived experience knowledge and public health expertise we are increasing the possibility of improving population mental health.

“One in six adults in England have a mental health condition, and mental distress and ill health are associated with significant disability, sickness absence, unemployment and suicide attempts. This Population Mental Health Consortium creates new opportunities for diverse community-based improvements in mental health across the country. We have achieved a lot at a London-level in terms of bridging a connection between communities and systems and we are delighted to take this approach on a national scale.”

Professor Jayati Das-Munshi, Principal Investigator and PMHC Director, King’s College London said: “This is an exciting initiative to tackle a growing need to address public mental health challenges facing the UK today. To date, a major barrier has been in effective partnerships across research, communities and lived experience, to effectively harness large-scale data, to understand ‘what works’ for the prevention of mental health difficulties.

“We will strengthen these partnerships across local government, public health, voluntary organisations and universities across the UK. We will work with our stakeholders and people with lived experience to understand which population interventions hold the greatest promise, leading to good mental health for all.”

In addition to close working with universities, the PMHC has strong links to national bodies (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH), The Mental Health Foundation, Centre for Mental Health, NHS Race and Health Observatory) across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This provides an exciting opportunity for ensuring integrated cross-national and regional policy impact of the research.

We are currently in our setting-up stage; Thrive LDN and KCL will keep our partners updated on progress. We will also highlight opportunities to work together or ways to get involved through future engagement events/ activities. We look forward to working with you all to ensure we maximise the potential of this initiative.

If you have any questions, please contact the team.