Professor Todd Hartman part of team awarded Wellcome Discovery Award for research on mental health and administrative justice
The six-year project will explore how complex systems impact care and aims to improve support by including real experiences and building a diverse research community.
Professor Todd Hartman (Social Statistics) part of interdisciplinary team awarded Wellcome Discovery Award for research on mental health and administrative justice.
Primary health services are the first point of contact for those seeking support for common mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression. These services form an essential part of the response to the UK鈥檚 mental health crisis.
Engagement with those accessing and navigating primary care pathways for common mental health problems has highlighted that accessing and engaging with support frequently involves struggling with complex and burdensome bureaucratic processes at an already difficult time. These experiences can leave people with a profound sense of unjust treatment that continues throughout their journey through the system.
Research across different disciplines has suggested that perceptions of 鈥榡ust鈥� treatment can also significantly impact treatment outcomes by affecting engagement with services, deterring individuals from seeking support in the future, and exacerbating existing inequalities within the system.
A research programme, led by Professor Joe Tomlinson and funded by a 拢2.5 million Discovery Award, will pioneer the application of the theory of 鈥榖ureaucratic justice鈥� in primary mental health services. By deploying an innovative combination of a longitudinal quantitative and qualitative study with participatory storytelling methods, the programme will develop a new understanding of the nature and relevance of just treatment in the context of how people interact with frontline administrative processes in primary care mental health services.
The programme will also build an interdisciplinary community of researchers, while providing a platform to embed lived experiences of seeking mental health support into research practices in innovative and engaging ways.
The programme formally launches in January 2026 and will run for six years. Alongside Professor Joe Tomlinson, The Dickson Poon School of Law and King鈥檚 College London, the programme will benefit from the expertise of co-investigator Head of the and Deputy Director of the at 黑料入口. Co-investigators are also based at the University of York (including Dr Jed Meers, Dr Simona Manni, Dr Annie Irvine, Dr Aisling Ryan, and Professor Lina Gega).