Kerry Bell
Associate Professor and Assistant Director of York Trials Unit
Profile
Biography
Kerry joined the University of York in 2006 as an undergraduate in Psychology and went on to complete a Masters in Cognitive Neuroscience alongside a Research Assistant post in Psycholinguistics. She then joined the Department of Health Sciences in 2010 having been awarded a prestigious NIHR CLAHRC Scholarship to undertake a PhD. Kerry’s doctoral research explored the relationship between maternal mental health and child developmental outcomes, addressing the impact of missed maternal depression and the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of screening for postnatal depression.
Kerry has been a member of York Trials Unit since 2013. Initially working in a hybrid role covering both Health Economics and Trial Management, Kerry is now an Assistant Director of the unit. She has substantial experience in a broad range of research methodologies spanning a range of health and well-being related fields. She has a particular interest in child and adolescent health, education and well-being and has been involved in numerous trials in this area. Kerry offers expertise in trial design and delivery, particularly with regards to delivering randomised controlled trials within community settings.
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Psychology
- MSc Cognitive Neuroscience
- PhD Health Sciences
Departmental roles
Present
- Assistant Director of York Trials Unit
- Impact and Knowledge Exchange Coordinator
Past
- Athena Swan Working Group Member
- Health Sciences Research Governance Committee Member
- Network for Economists Researching in the Department of Health Sciences Member
Research
Overview
Kerry’s primary research interests include maternal and child health, childhood interventions, randomised controlled trials, quantitative research methods and health economics.
Projects
Active Projects:
- EPLAYS-2 - Evaluating ‘Enhancing Pragmatic LAnguage skills for Young children with Social communication disorder’ (E-PLAYS) -2
- INTERACT - A cluster RCT of Intensive Interaction to support the communication abilities of children and young people with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD)
- moreRESPECT - An RCT to investigate whether an intervention designed to promote sexual health for people with severe mental illness is clinically and cost effective.
Previous Projects:
- ABRA - Abracadabra an RCT of an online literacy programme for Year 1 pupils
- ACE 2 HEAR - A randomised controlled feasibility trial of the Active Communication Education programme plus hearing-aid provision versus hearing-aid provision alone
- ASSSIST-2 – Social Stories for children with autism
- BreathMOR HF-Morphine for the relief of breathlessness in stable chronic heart failure
- Building Blocks – Family Nurse Partnership Programme
- Calderdale 2
- CASCADE - Case finding for depression in primary care: a regression discontinuity design
- E-PLAYS - Evaluating ‘Enhancing Pragmatic LAnguage skills for Young children with Social communication disorder’ (E-PLAYS): A feasibility study
- EMPRESS - Cancer diagnosis via Emergency Presentation Study
- EVerT2 – Effective Verruca Treatments
- Exploring the relationship between maternal mental health and child developmental outcomes
- GYY - An RCT assessing the effectiveness of Gentle Years Yoga for older adults with multimorbidity, for improving health-related quality of life
- Maths Champions – Online support for maths provision in early years’ settings
- MC II - An RCT of the Maths Champions II online programme supporting nursery practitioners to develop numeracy skills for children aged 3-4 years
- ReflectED - An RCT of the ReflectED approach to developing metacognition skills in KS1+2 pupils to support attainment in maths and reading
- SCI-napse
- SCOOP - Screening For Osteoporosis In Older Women For The Prevention Of Fractures
- STEPFOWARD – Patient acceptability of a novel prosthetic device
- TEEMUP – A professional development programme to develop early numeracy in Reception and Year 1 pupils: a cluster randomised controlled trial
- Teensleep – Sleep education for GCSE attainment
- TRUST (Collaboration with Dundee)
- Tutor Trust Affordable Primary Tuition
Research group(s)
Supervision
Kerry offers supervision to postgraduate students. She would be interested in supervising PhDs in topics relating to the health and wellbeing of children and young people, women’s health, or general mental health.
Teaching
Postgraduate
Kerry offers supervision to postgraduate students. She would be interested in supervising PhDs in topics relating to the health and wellbeing of children and young people, women’s health, or general mental health.
External activities
Memberships
-
International Behavioural Trials Network
-
Yorkshire Mental Health Research Forum
-
Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health
-
UK Trial Managers Network
-
NHS CHAIN Network
