Primary Care and Mental Health

The Quadrangle square in the university of Liverpool

The Department of Primary Care and Mental Health’s (PCMH) goal is to enhance mental health and wellbeing support, and primary healthcare provision. PCMH engages in scholarly activity to develop theories, models and interventions for primary healthcare and to promote mental health and wellbeing. Our research and teaching activities aim to enhance excellence in primary, community, mental health and social care at a local and global level.

PCMH seeks to enable and develop all our staff and students by providing research and learning opportunities, training, mentorship, and peer support. Colleagues working in health and social care, experts by experience and members of the public are welcomed into our research and education activities, and research group meetings.

Our underlying principles include inclusion and diversity, multi-disciplinarity and co-production. We achieve these through various means including working closely with the department’s committees (e.g. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committee, Postgraduate Research committee, Research committee, Education committee) promoting research equity. We adhere to robust governance and standards of professional and research ethics.

Our research programmes include, for example:

Global mental health
Chronic conditions and polymorbidity
Children and families
Older adults
Primary care and community mental health
Big data – CIPHA and System-P
Suicide and self-harm
Dementia and ageing
Clinical psychology (including forensics, pain, dementia, and physical health)
Visual impairment in acquired brain injury.

Our challenges

Community based approaches to tackle health inequalities

How might we clarify what ‘community’ means to people, and ensure that ‘community-based’ approaches can adequately tackle socioeconomic determinants and structural inequalities, and human rights abuses?

Wellbeing, illness prevention, recovery and rehabilitation

How do we build links between efforts to promote physical and mental wellbeing, prevent ill health and support recovery and rehabilitation?

Increasing the clinical and health psychology workforce

How can we contribute to increasing the clinical and health psychology workforce to meet mental health needs in the face of public health emergencies?

Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast (ARC NWC)

A collaboration of health and social care providers, NHS commissioners, local authorities, universities and public advisers working together to tackle health inequalities through applied research. It works with its member organisations to implement research findings into practice which improves the health of both individuals and their communities.

Case studies

Community-based Sociotherapy Adapted for Refugees (COSTAR)

The project aims to culturally and linguistically adapt CBS for use with Congolese refugees, and evaluate its efficacy and cost-effectiveness for addressing the elevated levels of mental health difficulties experienced by populations that have been subject to conflict and displacement.

Improving access to psychological therapies for perinatal depression

Perinatal depression affects one in four women in low and middle income countries with over 90% not receiving any treatment for this condition. This has devastating consequences for the mothers and their infants.

Vision, Orthoptic and Brain Injury Research Unit (VISION)

The VISION group evaluates visual impairment in acquired brain injury and neurological conditions, explores and develops outcome measures in orthoptics, and seeks to explore the complexity of co-existent visual and functional impairments

Key staff members