Youth Resilience Unit
About Us
Founded in 2021 with a £2.8 million grant from Barts Charity, the Youth Resilience Unit was the first centre of its kind in the UK and has since become a world‑leading hub for research into youth mental health.
Based in East London, the Unit plays transformational role in improving young people’s wellbeing by studying research into the personal and social factors that contribute to resilience in young people and developing practical tools, community resources and models of care to reduce and prevent loneliness, depression and anxiety, thereby reducing the risks of self-harm and hospitalisation.
YRU researchers work hand in hand with schools, local charities, and community partners to address health and social inequalities, particularly among refugee and marginalised groups. This collaborative approach ensures that young people are active co‑researchers, shaping studies that genuinely impact their lives. The Unit’s initiatives, from exploring emotional resilience in school children and linking young people to local services in Newham, to developing mobile mental health clinics in Ukraine, reflect Queen Mary’s broader civic mission: research that connects with real communities and contributes to social progress.
YRU specifically aims to explore the impact of social inequalities and the ways to address it, working together with refugee communities and other marginalised groups. Our researchers work in close collaboration with a wide variety of community partners, such as schools and charities, forging links and building trust with often under-resourced local organisations.
Key research areas include:
- Anxiety and Depression.
- Loneliness.
- Self-harm and Suicide.
- Global Mental Health.
Our Team
Dennis Ougrin - Unit Lead
Jennifer Lau - Principal Investigator
Francois Van Loggerenberg - Research Fellow
Ben Wong - Clinical Research Coordinator
Camilla Parker - NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow
Julia Michalek – Postdoctoral Researcher
Laura Paulauskaite - Postdoctoral Researcher
Lenny Buxton - Postdoctoral Researcher
Komal Dayani - Project Manager
Lauren Turner - Research Assistant
Catarina Duarte - Research Assistant
Lauren Jerome - PhD Student
Aisling Murray - PhD Student
Mariana Steffen - PhD Student
Anna Tarasenko - PhD Student
Abigail Thomson - PhD Student
Active Research Projects
UNITE study
The UNITE project spans three years and adopts a multi-methods approach, combining analyses of quantitative and qualitative data. It aims to understand the individual and social pathways to loneliness in young people from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds that can ultimately be targeted in effective interventions to support this group. The project also brings together the expertise of academics, charities working with young people, and young people themselves. It is a collaboration between Queen Mary University London and King’s College London and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). For more information, please contact Lauren Turner.
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The Social Health Hub is a five-year research programme exploring how social determinants, the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, influence the course of Severe Mental Illness (SMI), and shape how people respond to their conditions over time. The Social Health Hub brings together a network of researchers from Liverpool University, University of Warwick, Newcastle University, Kings College London, City St Georges, Brunel, University of Plymouth. We work hand in hand with our Lived Experience Advisory Board and the McPin Foundation. Together, we aim to understand how the places and communities people live in, and the relationships they hold, affect not only the severity of symptoms but also their capacity to cope, maintain a good quality of life, and take on meaningful roles in society. Research activities include a large cohort study involving 600 people with severe mental illness, and big data analysis to explore the influence of place on clinical outcomes. Visit our website to find out more about our projects or contact the Social Health Hub project manager Dr Lenny Buxton to find out more.
Healing the emotional wounds of illegal child workers through a co-produced arts-based program: A multi-country feasibility study. Child labour refers to paid and unpaid work carried out by children that is detrimental to and endangers them. Child labour affects up to one in four children in low- and medium-income countries and deprives young people of their education, future opportunities and prosperity. Eradicating child labour is an urgent priority for governments and non-governmental organisations. In some Asian countries, “rehabilitation programmes” have been developed aiming to remove young people from illegal employment, provide shelter, food, legal and medical assistance, and help to re-integrate children with their families and in education. This study aims to co-adapt and formatively evaluate an arts-based programme to reduce emotional distress and build re-integration into society in rescued child labourers from India, Bangladesh and Nepal. This study involves a collaboration between local people with lived experience of child labour, local creative practitioners, UK-based arts therapists and researchers from Tribhuvan University (Nepal), Banaras Hindu University (India), University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), Queen Mary University (the leading university, UK), Brunel University (UK) and Edge Hill University (UK). For more information, please visit the study website or contact Dr Laura Paulauskaite.
DAISI Ukraine
Developing and Integrating Mobile Community Mental Health Services in Ukraine (DAISI Ukraine) is a four-year, NIHR-funded project in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association, and Psychabiliti. The project aims to strengthen Ukraine’s mental health care system by refining, embedding, and expanding Mobile Community Mental Health Teams (MCMHTs) nationwide. These MCMHTs are multidisciplinary, linked with primary care, and provide home-based treatment, using principles from European models of community care while addressing local challenges such as the destruction of mental health services during the war, vast geographical barriers, and stigma surrounding mental health treatment. DAISI Ukraine’s objectives are to provide locally relevant evidence to guide the implementation of MCMHTs, enhance local research capacity, and create a global network of researchers focused on community mental healthcare. The project will co-develop and refine the MCMHT model in collaboration with healthcare workers and service users, ensuring it is tailored to local needs. Additionally, it will include conducting a feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) and establishing long-term sustainability by integrating the model into policy, contributing to the creation of a National Service Standard for MCMHTs, and ensuring that MCMHTs can continue to deliver effective care during and after the war. For more information, please contact Dennis Ougrin or Komal Dayani.
National Child Mortality by Suicide Study
This is a case-control study, in collaboration with the University of Bristol. The study utilises the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD), which collects data on all deaths of children and adolescents in England since 2019, via the statutory child death review process. This study aims to investigate the association between completed suicide and previous non-suicidal self-injury, as well as other clinical and sociodemographic risk factors. For more information, please contact Ben Hoi-ching Wong.
RAMYS study
This is a qualitative study in CAMHS at East London NHS Foundation Trust, aiming to understand the current risk assessment and management for children and young people who have a history of self-harm. The primary objective of the study is to understand how risks are understood by young people, caregivers, and clinicians respectively. The study is recruiting 15 young people (aged 12-18 years) who have any history of self-harm, 15 parents, and 15 clinicians who are involved in risk assessment or management, from a variety of CAMHS settings, including crisis, community CAMHS, and inpatient. Young people and parent participants will be interviewed on their perceived risks, and the support to which they have access, comparing these to the CAMHS assessment. We will also interview clinicians on their approaches to self-harm risk assessment and any existing engagement mechanisms. For more information, please contact Ben Hoi-ching Wong.
Completed projects
The Development of Emotional Resilience study was a Barts Charity-funded project involving primary school children in Years 3, 4, and 5. The DEER study investigated what helps children to develop resilience to “bounce back” from challenging events and thrive. The findings shed light on how schools, families and communities can help to support children when they go through difficult times.
The Great Friendship Project
The Great Friendship Project was a one-year project adopting a mixed-methods approach, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. It aimed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a new community-based programme designed to tackle loneliness for young and working-age adults in London. The programme focused on encouraging social interactions and connections through offering community activities and free or low-cost social events for young adults. It was a collaboration between Queen Mary University London and the University of Exeter and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through the UKRI Creating Opportunities Evaluation Development Fund. For more information, please contact Catarina Duarte.
The Youth Loneliness Scale (YLS) study was a three-year project which developed, evaluated, and disseminated a new developmentally sensitive measure of loneliness with and for young people aged 10-24 in the UK. The project adopts a multi-methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, and young people are involved in each stage of the process. It was a collaboration between Queen Mary University of London, the University of Manchester, and King’s College London, funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). For more information, please contact Laura Riddleston or visit the YLS website.
TRUST study
The Evaluation of the Teaching Recovery Techniques plus Parenting, a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial in Ukrainian Schools in Ternopil (TRUST) study. Children exposed to war-related trauma are at significant risk of developing mental health problems, such as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was to evaluate a community-based intervention called ‘Teaching Recovery Techniques Plus Parenting’ (TRT+P) for Ukrainian children experiencing PTSD symptoms. The objective of the trial is to evaluate whether the Teaching Recovery Techniques Plus Parenting (TRT+P) programme influences child mental health, specifically symptoms of post-traumatic stress, in comparison to similar children who only receive services as usual. For more information, please contact Dennis Ougrin.
Contact
Jennifer Lau – j.lau@qmul.ac.uk
Dennis Ougrin – d.ougrin@qmul.ac.uk
Yvonne Carter Building
58 Turner Street
London
E1 2AB