National Post Emergency Mental Health Support: What Works for Different Groups Over Time?

Co funded by the National Emergencies Trust (The Trust), this PhD will seek to gather, summarise and make available learning from across the globe and across different types of events relevant to the care and support of those directly and indirectly impacted by major events in the UK. As we live in an increasingly complex world, the future of emergencies and major events will occur in a changing context, as societal, demographic and environmental changes influence the nature of the risks faced by the public and the emergency services staff. The increasingly complex environment will see our public exposed to escalating levels of risk from climate change, economic precarity, sociodemographic projections, impacts on the UK from geopolitical challenges, and the challenges of statutory support from health care. This PhD programme will work with the Trust, their partners, and associated organisations within the UK and across the globe to improve outcomes for those directly or indirectly impacted by major events such as terrorist attacks, flooding, drought, health risks, major fires and other types of major incident at local or national level in the UK. This PhD will draw together a wide range of disparate and complex evidence to help build a clearer picture of the impacts on survivors of these major events. There is much anecdotal and peer reviewed evidence that frequently the immediate, medium term and longer-term support and care of survivors is not coordinated or consistent. Identifying the reasons for this, and what needs to be in place to ensure future survivors are not exposed to the same harms of disrupted or inconsistent care, is the focus of this PhD. By establishing the first evidence base to understand how the best ways to support different groups, with different, overlapping and emergent needs, and by establishing and evaluating ‘what works’, will ensure inconsistencies and gaps in provision of care do not contribute to greater harm and investment over time. The research proposed has been collaboratively designed by the organisations and survivors. By equipping The Trust and other organisations with ongoing synthesised and curated evidence and knowledge, it will create, for the first time, a pathway for the longer-term care of survivors in the UK, informed by evidence and interventions with maximum support and minimal harm. It will curate how The Trust and other organisations can support, safeguard and ensure that survivors navigate the wider ecology of care and support with ease and clarity, so that they do not experience:

* gaps between services,

* pathways that are uncoordinated,

* geographic or postcode inequity in provision, or

* the lack of resources to support their needs as they change and develop through their life course.

Aims and objectives. It will combine qualitative and quantitative social sciences approaches, observational and naturally occurring data within the research programme to understand these challenges and provide solutions. The aims are to:

* reduce physical, social, psychological and environmental harm of survivors of major events

* create new ways to globally understand the lived experience of survivors and find new and innovative ways to include their lived experience to influence policy design through new ways of using data, analysis, curation, processing, and integration across the survivor communities

* offer senior leaders the tools, decision-making resources, narratives and overview to consider how best to support future survivors of major events which have not yet happened

* to inform theoretical models of senior leaders’ long term planning and strategic thinking in the areas of health eco systems and psychosocial humanitarian assistance across the globe

* to develop a supportive approach to enable long-term embedding of future care and support for survivors in the UK

Supervisors

1) Professor Rowena Hill - rowena.hill@ntu.ac.uk

2) Dr Ben Griffiths (National Emergencies Trust)