Our impact

Prudence Trust Fellows

Dr Lucy Foulkes, University of Oxford

Dr Lucy Foulkes is an academic psychologist specialising in adolescent mental health. She also has extensive experience of public science communication. She is the author of the book What Mental Illness Really Is (…and what it isn’t) (Penguin Random House, 2021) and is writing a second book about adolescent development, due for publication in summer 2024.

Lucy started her Prudence Trust fellowship in January 2023, where she is investigating whether some aspects of school-based mental health interventions can cause adolescents harm.

Dr Naomi Warne, University of Bristol

Dr Naomi Warne’s research interests include identifying factors that can increase risk for mental health problems and considering how we can target these factors to prevent and treat mental illness. Her previous work has focused on the psychology and epidemiology of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and self-harm in young people.

For her Prudence Trust fellowship Naomi is working with young people, parents, schools, art therapists and mental health professionals to develop a novel arts-based programme aimed at preventing anxiety and depression in UK secondary schools.

Dr Christina Carlisi, University College London

Christina completed her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King’s College London, before moving to UCL for her postdoctoral fellowship where she investigated individual differences in emotion processing in adolescents. During her Prudence Trust fellowship, Christina is extending this work to explore the neurocognitive predictors of school-based psychological intervention outcomes in young people with anxiety and depression. This project is using computer games delivered via smartphone app, as well as brain imaging, to help us understand the mechanisms by which young people process emotional information in their environments and how this impacts how they learn about their world and make decisions. Ultimately, this research may help us better target interventions to individuals, or even develop new treatments in the future.

Dr Josefien Breedvelt, King’s College London

Josefien Breedvelt is an academic psychologist. Her research focuses on improving the understanding of risk and protective factors and personalisation of approaches for depression and anxiety prevention. She was previously Director of Analysis at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), where she was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of secondary data analysis projects.

Josefien brings a wealth of experience from academia and the third sector, having previously worked in research roles at the Centre for Urban Mental Health at the University of Amsterdam and the Mental Health Foundation, UK. For more information about her research, visit josefienbreedvelt.com.

Dr Sarah Griffiths, University College London

Dr Sarah Griffiths is an academic psychologist interested in the mental health of young people with neurodevelopmental conditions. Her recent work has focused on understanding why language difficulties are linked to poorer mental health outcomes in adolescence. In her Prudence Trust fellowship, Sarah will be testing methods of adapting talking therapies for young people with developmental language disorder. Her work will offer insight into the language barriers that prevent these young people from engaging with talking-therapies, and provide practical, evidence-based guidance to overcome these barriers.

Dr Laura Hull, University of Bristol

Dr Laura Hull is a researcher with a background in psychology and epidemiology. Her research focuses on factors that impact mental health and wellbeing for neurodivergent people across the lifespan and improving access to diagnosis and support for autistic people. She is the co-author of a book, “Autism and Masking” (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2021). For her Prudence Trust fellowship, Laura will be tracking the impact of camouflaging (also known as masking) on mental health for neurodivergent young people and co-developing interventions to support neurodivergent young people who camouflage.

Dr Stephanie J Lewis, King’s College London

Dr Stephanie Lewis is an academic child and adolescent psychiatrist, who investigates the mental health problems of young people exposed to traumatic events and other adversities. She has shown that these young people are at high risk of wide-ranging and co-occurring mental health problems, and often do not receive healthcare for these problems. During her Prudence Trust fellowship, Stephanie will further investigate co-occurring mental health problems in young people. Specifically, she will study the recognition and treatment of depression and anxiety in young people who have another co-occurring mental health disorder. Her findings will inform interventions for this large group of young people who currently have high unmet mental health needs.

Dr Tessa Reardon, University of Oxford

Dr Tessa Reardon is an academic psychologist at the University of Oxford.  Her research focuses on the development and implementation of novel approaches for identifying and delivering support for children with common mental health problems.   For her Prudence Trust fellowship, Tessa will build on her previous research to further develop and test the feasibility of implementing a screening-to-intervention approach for anxiety problems in routine practice in primary schools.  Her work aims to provide an implementation model that could be adapted for other mental health problems and age groups.