Dr Chandani Nekitsing

Academic biography

Dr Chandani Nekitsing has a background in Research and Health Psychology and has worked on a range of health behaviour projects across lifespan (including mental health, human appetite, health screening and uptake of physical activity). Chandani has been a Research Associate at the University of York since 2018. Currently she is working on a NIHR funded Community Navigator Trial looking at developing and testing a programme of support to increase community connections and reduce loneliness for people with long-term depression.

Chandani recently completed a Born in Bradford project looking at inequalities in the identification and treatment of perinatal mental health in order to develop recommendations and adaptations to systems to address these inequalities. 

Chandani’s PhD at the University of Leeds (School of Psychology) looking at strategies to increase vegetable intake in the early years has led to publication of series of vegetable story books for young children.

Chandani is passionate about applied mental health research that has the potential to improve lives of all individuals, in particular those who are underserved in our community. She is determined and committed to further develop her personal knowledge and skills in order to ensure that high quality and impactful research is conducted and disseminated to improve health and wellbeing.

Research

List of current research interests and projects

NIHR: National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Community Navigator Trial

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WYHCP) Perinatal Mental Health

Research team members

• Professor Martin Webber (and others), International Centre for Mental Health Social Research, University of York.
• Dr Bryn Lloyd-Evans (and others), Division of Psychiatry, University College London
• Richard Carroll (and others), Community Mental Health Service, Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS foundation Trust  
  Dr Sarah Blower, Dr Sarah Masefield and Professor Kate Pickett, Department of Health Sciences, University York
• Dr Josie Dickerson (and others), Born in Bradford, Bradford Institute for Health Research
• Dr Zoe Darwin, School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield
• Professor Marion Hetherington and Dr Pam Birtill School of Psychology, University of Leeds

Substantial research project public output

A series of children’s vegetable story books have been published based on Chandani’s PhD research. 

Professional activities 

• Member of British Feeding and Drinking Group.
• Member of The Society for Reproductive and Infant Psychology (SRIP).

PhD supervision interests

Chandani is able to co-supervise PhD projects looking at Health and Wellbeing (eg Behaviour Change, Healthy Eating, Perinatal Mental Health, Health Inequalities, Mental Health Intervention).