Who?

Our Ethos

Our research team (you can read more about them below!) are experienced mental health professionals and researchers who have undertaken work with survivors of abuse, people who use drugs and/or alcohol, and those who live with mental health problems. We understand that the decision to take part in such a study can be had, and the immediate benefits for participation may not be immediately obvious. However, in talking to people who have taken part in similar studies, the consensus seems to be that people really value having a voice and using their experiences to improve services for others in the future. We are recruiting people at a really difficult time in their lives and we really recognise this as a barrier, however, we are really passionate about hearing from a wide range of people and hearing the experiences. We are making every attempt to minimise the burden of participation and we are working with survivors to design how we undertake this research. The purpose of the website is a public source of information about our 3 year study. We also hope that people considering taking part will be using it to think about taking part.

Throughout all this work we will be working in partnership with people with lived experiences to develop reports designed for users, carers and staff who work in relevant services so that services can be improved or adapted depending on what we find. All our studies will be conducted with respect and sensitivity.We will conduct our research according to Good Clinical Practice and The Survivors Charterhttps://survivorsvoices.org/charter/. All participants will have time and space to decide whether to participate, have clear and understandable information about participation and will be required to give signed informed consent. We will protect confidentiality and personal data. Safety and comfort for the participants is our main concern and all our researchers will be trained in working with survivors.


The Research Team

Prof. Elizabeth Hughes

Liz is a professor of mental health at the school of healthcare at the University of Leeds. She is a mental health nurse by background and has an academic career spanning almost 20 years. Liz moved to the University of Leeds to take up a Chair in Mental Health in the School of Healthcare in September 2018 and is lead investigator on this national study (the MIMOS study) which seeks to examine how mental health needs are identified and addressed after attendance at sexual assault referral centres. Liz’s research interests span broadly the intersection of physical health and mental health.


Dr Steve Ariss

Steven is a researcher/methodology advisor and has a background in Sociology and Health Studies. He is based at ScHARR at the University of Sheffield, where he is a Senior Research Fellow in health services research. He also has a lead evaluator role in the NIHR CLAHRC for Yorkshire and Humber. Steven is a mixed-methods researcher, and specialises in teaching and leading complex programme evaluations. His role in the study is to advise on Realist Evaluation methodology.




Prof. Gail Gilchrist

Gail is a Professor in Addictions Healthcare Research.  She is a mixed methods researcher whose research focuses on substance use and its relationship with intimate partner violence and developing and testing integrated interventions to address these.






Dr Rachael Hunter

Rachael is the lead for the Health Economics Analysis and Research methods Team (HEART) at UCL. She provides health economics expertise for clinical trials and policy evaluation across the Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology (ICTM). She specialises in health economic evaluations of complex interventions in mental health, primary care, criminal justice and maternity settings. As a consultant she has provided advice to the Department of Health and NHS London on the cost effectiveness of government policies. She has worked with a number of corporate clients on the design of health economic models to assess the cost-effectiveness of new health care technologies.


Dr Sarah Kendal

Sarah was a mental health nurse for 25 years. She is now an independent mental health researcher, with a particular interest in public engagement in research. Sarah strongly believes that people who need support should be able to influence services. Her previous projects have included an NIHR funded analysis of how young people use self care support for mental health, and a study to promote children’s participation in an NHS Trust.



Dr Bryn Lloyd-Evans

Bryn is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Psychiatry at university College London. Having worked as a mental health social worker in London, since 2005 he has worked at UCL on a range of health services research studies. His interests include community crisis alternatives to hospital admission,  social relationships and loneliness in mental health; and process measurement and service improvement in health service models. Bryn is a Deputy Director of the NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit and a collaborator on the UKRI Network in Loneliness and Social Isolation in Mental Health.


Prof. Mike Lucock

Mike is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Huddersfield and Associate Director of Research in the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. He is a chartered clinical psychologist and completed post qualification training in cognitive therapy in 1997. His main research activity has been focused on self-help/self-management in mental health and psychological therapies process and outcome research in routine NHS service settings.




Dr Rabiya Majeed-Ariss

Rabiya is the Research Associate working at Saint Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre since 2015. In this role, one of her projects has been to improve Saint Mary’s SARC services for people with learning disabilities. This project found interesting relationships between learning disabilities and mental health. Working part time on the MIMOS project alongside her SARC role will provide Rabiya with the opportunity to be involved in a multi-site project focusing on mental health in the context of sexual violence.



Fay Maxted OBE

Fay has worked with survivors of sexual violence and abuse since 1996, when she was appointed manager of RoSA (Rape or Sexual Abuse Support) in Rugby. She has supported survivors in dealing with responses to their disclosures of abuse in care homes, faith and school settings, provided support with criminal and civil actions and in claiming criminal injuries compensation. She helped establish The Survivors Trust (TST) in 2003 as a UK and Ireland network of specialist rape and sexual abuse support services with a membership of 70 specialist agencies. She was appointed CEO in 2004 and I attend a range of national groups and forums aimed at addressing the institutional responses to survivors of child sexual abuse and rape. In the past four years, she has overseen the set-¬up of five new rape and sexual abuse support centres, funded through the government commitment to open 15 new centres. In addition to her role in TST she is a member of the National Police Chiefs Council Rape Working Group, and a member of the HMIC Rape Monitoring Group. She is also a member of the CPS External Stakeholder Group and the CPS Community Accountability Forum which raises issues of current concern facing survivors of sexual violence and abuse. She was also a member of the now concluded Children’s Commissioner’s Inquiry into Sexual Abuse in the Family Environment (CSAFE) and a member of the Research Advisory Group for the CSAFE research project. She was awarded an OBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of her work promoting survivors’ rights.


Concetta Perôt

CHRIS ROE / Credit – CHADWICKS

Concetta is an independent researcher, a qualified psychotherapist (BACP) and social worker (HCPC) and the Co-founder/Director of a survivor-led organisation, Survivors’ Voices. She has over 20 years of experience of working with children in care and prisons and running peer-led groups with adult survivors of abuse and interpersonal trauma. She has a first class honours in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and an MSc with distinction in Mental Health Studies from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London. Her thesis was on the assessment and treatment of trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when it co-occurs with psychosis. She is a Research Associate with University of Bristol and King’s College London and is involved in studies investigating the role of peer-support for survivors and as the lead researcher for the Charter for Organisations Engaging Abuse Survivors, a unique survivor-led project exploring safe, effective and meaningful engagement of survivors. She has also worked on the NAPAC national helpline providing telephone support for adult survivors of abuse. Concetta offers consultancy, training and lecturing to enable organisations and individuals to better understand trauma, its impact and the importance of developing research, services, policies and practices from survivor-informed perspectives.


Theodora Stefanidou

Dora is a Research Fellow at UCL Division of Psychiatry, having joined at May 2017. She has a psychology background and has completed a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Sciences at UCL. Her research interests include: psychosocial interventions in mental health; early intervention in psychosis; loneliness in mental health.





Dr Nicky Nights

Nicky is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Mental Health, based at the University of Leeds. She has worked in research for 15 years in the areas of developmental psychopathology, addictions, sexual health and evaluating effectiveness of community-based mental and sexual health interventions for young people. Her PhD was in the field of developmental psychopathology and complex trauma. Her current research interests are social influences on adolescent mental health and development, and co-production. Prior to a career in research, Nicky worked in a clinical capacity within clinical psychology, acute mental health services and probation services .


Prof. Karen Tocque

Karen Tocque is an honorary professor of health intelligence at the University of Chester and a trained epidemiologist with 30+ years’ experience in statistics and ecology. She has spent the last 24 years working in applied population health intelligence and evaluation. Her specialist skills are in health inequalities, geographical analyses, surveys and data systems. KT currently runs her own Community Interest Company KT Intelligence CIC and works as a freelance epidemiologist in collaboration with other like-minded Social Enterprises and academic units in England and Wales. Together, we publish research, evaluation and intelligence to inform local, regional and national policy. Karen has a long-standing interest in inequalities and behavioural ecology and has undertaken a range of research projects relating alcohol use, smoking, mental health and criminal justice and how these link with social deprivation.


Dr Kylee Trevillion

Kylee is a lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. She is a mixed-methods researcher who specialises in women’s mental health research, conducting work on practice and policy responses to violence against women in the context of mental illness, and work on perinatal mental health. Alongside being a co-applicant on the MiMOS study, Kylee leads an evaluation of a new whole-family domestic violence intervention targeted to reduce abuse and improve parent-child relationships and child development. She also works on the National Institute for Health Resarch Mental Health Policy Research Unit. Her previous work includes interviewing trafficked people and people who have experienced domestic abuse about their healthcare needs and health service use, conducting systematic reviews to investigate the relationship between domestic violence and mental disorders, and piloting an intervention of domestic violence advocacy within community mental health services.


Sibongile Rutsito

Sibo is a Research Assistant at the University of Leeds with an interest in mental health and vulnerable populations. She has a Social Science background with over 15 years’ experience in sexual and reproductive health research including clinical trials in Zimbabwe. She has worked on a National HIV Prevention Project for female sex workers in Zimbabwe, part of which included addressing sexual and physical abuse faced by women in sex work and advocating for their access rights to health and treatment.

Dr Jill Domoney

Dr Jill Domoney is a Research Clinical Psychologist in the Section of Women’s Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. She specialises in perinatal mental health and the links between mental health and violence. Her research to date has included developing interventions for antenatal depression, evaluating interventions for pregnant couples where there is domestic violence, and exploring mental health services’ responses to people who have been trafficked. She holds an honorary clinical position in the Southwark Community Perinatal Mental Health Team.

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Holly Price

Holly is a Research Assistant for Kings College London, working in the Section of Women’s Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. She has a Masters in Forensic Psychology from Royal Holloway University of London. She has spent numerous years working front line in services that include homelessness, mental health and domestic abuse. Her previous research has focussed on violence against women in the homeless community.