Samantha’s PhD research began in July 2022 and explores York’s innovative Connecting Our City mental health transformation project.  The key aim of the Connecting Our City project is to develop a whole-community approach to mental health and wellbeing.

Samantha is researching non-pathologising approaches to mental health care which move away from a medical model to a community based, strengths focused approach - as well as the importance of coproduction and active citizenship in community mental health.  This research has a strong focus on inclusion and collaboration with individuals with lived experiences of mental ill health and staff and partner experiences of the process of systems change.  Specific areas of inquiry involve current theoretical approaches to community mental health care in England, the Trieste mental health care model, community mental health hubs, partnership working/colocation and organisational culture, and the challenges and opportunities created for learning for both frontline staff and those accessing mental health support during cultural shifts in service design and delivery.

Samantha plans to bring her background as an art psychotherapist and artist practitioner into her research by considering alternative research outputs and using creative research methodologies as part of her data generation.  She hopes to capture the voices of people often left out of research and service transformation by exploring different ways of understanding the complex systems involved in mental health service design and delivery.

Samantha has a background as an artist and art psychotherapist, as well as having worked in health, mental health and wellbeing across the VCSE sector, within the NHS, and with the local authority in York over the past decade.  Her master’s research explored the history, controversies and current treatment of medically unexplained symptoms in the UK, and the potential for exploring the mind/body diagnostic divide with creative approaches and art psychotherapy.  Her artistic practice uses photography and found objects to explore identity and trauma, family, and mental health/medical history.