{"id":899,"date":"2020-08-24T04:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T04:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/?p=899"},"modified":"2020-08-24T09:12:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T09:12:44","slug":"dr-lindsay-dewa-research-fellow-in-public-health-school-of-public-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/2020\/08\/24\/dr-lindsay-dewa-research-fellow-in-public-health-school-of-public-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Lindsay Dewa, Research Fellow in Public Health, School of Public Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked together with young people to conduct a mixed methods study\u00a0<\/span><\/b>to understand how COVID-19 lockdown has affected their mental health and how they are coping<\/span><\/b>.\u201d<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Woof! I start my day as I did before\u00a0<\/span>the UK\u00a0<\/span>lockdown<\/span>\u00a0began<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 with a stare<\/span>\u00a0from Baxter<\/span>. Baxter \u2013 our border terrier<\/span>\u00a0–<\/span>\u00a0has really improved my wellbeing through lockdown. Keeping to our routine of walks, dinner and play has given me company\u00a0<\/span>through the\u00a0<\/span>lockdown<\/span>, when\u00a0<\/span>it was not possible to see my partner, friends or family.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

As a Mental Health First Aider<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0I\u2019ve reached out to friends, family and colleagues to make sure they are\u00a0<\/span>okay,<\/span>\u00a0and t<\/span>hey\u2019ve checked in on me too! We have all been there for each other. Looking after your own wellbeing is so important<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0Dog walks, drawing and good sleep are ways that I\u2019ve kept mentally well<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sleep has always been important to me. I completed my PhD at\u00a0<\/span>t<\/span>he University of Manchester in 2017<\/span>, which<\/span>\u00a0explored how people were sleeping in UK prisons. When I finished,\u00a0<\/span>I<\/span>\u00a0moved to London and<\/span>\u00a0joined the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC)<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Institute of Global Health Innovation<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>at Imperial to become a\u00a0<\/span>R<\/span>esearch\u00a0<\/span>A<\/span>ssociate in their mental health arm.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, now as a research fellow, I\u2019ve been working hard to put mental health at the top of the agenda\u00a0<\/span>at<\/span>\u00a0Imperial,\u00a0<\/span>using<\/span>\u00a0mixed methods approaches and working with people with experience of mental health difficulties as research partners,\u00a0<\/span>not\u00a0<\/span><\/i>participants. Working together through all stages of the research project is called co-production.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the\u00a0<\/span>COVID-19 lockdown<\/span>,<\/span> we <\/span>continued\u00a0<\/span>to co-produce our project called\u00a0<\/span>CCopeY<\/span><\/a>. We worked together with young people to conduct a mixed methods study \u2013 national survey first and then in-depth interviews \u2013 to understand how COVID-19 lockdown has affected their mental health and how they are coping during lockdown. Some young people have really struggled with their mental health during lockdown and yet most have found a way to cope \u2013 maintaining a routine,\u00a0<\/span>using<\/span>\u00a0distraction techniques and being outside\u00a0<\/span>were\u00a0<\/span>identified as key strategies.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually I interview people\u00a0<\/span>face-to-face<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0but I was able to push this project forward despite working from my spare bedroom by\u00a0<\/span>using\u00a0<\/span>different innovative techniques and technologies. For example,\u00a0<\/span>we have used<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Microsoft Teams to conduct our interviews,\u00a0<\/span>Jamboard<\/span>\u00a0to collate ideas on virtual post-it notes and Trello to change, edit and move \u201ccodes\u201d taken from our interviews. Technology has really helped\u00a0<\/span>life,<\/span>\u00a0connection and my research continue.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe worked together with young people to conduct a mixed methods study\u00a0to understand how COVID-19 lockdown has affected their mental health and how they are coping.\u201d\u00a0 Woof! I start my day as I did before\u00a0the UK\u00a0lockdown\u00a0began\u00a0\u2013 with a stare\u00a0from Baxter. Baxter \u2013 our border terrier\u00a0–\u00a0has really improved my wellbeing through lockdown. Keeping to our routine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294815],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}