Accessibility statement

Lina Gega
Professor of Mental Health. Director, Institute of Mental Health Research at York

Profile

Biography

Lina Gega is Professor of Mental Health at Hull York Medical School and an Honorary Nurse Consultant in Psychological Therapies at Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust. As Inaugural Director, Lina created the Institute of Mental Health Research at the University of York under the auspices of the Vice Chancellor’s Office across more than 20 academic departments in life and health sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities.

Her subject expertise straddles two areas: child and adolescent mental health, focusing on lean and scalable interventions across health services, schools and communities, and digital mental health, especially the clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of technology-enabled interventions. She is experienced in clinical trials of psychological interventions and in knowledge translation from research to practice and from non-health disciplines to applied mental health.

With £22 million in funding from UK Research Councils (20 projects, 6 as lead), £1.5 million from charities and other sources (16 projects, 4 as lead), 8 funded PhD studentships and €7million from Horizon Europe (collaborator), Lina’s research has been disseminated in 90 publications and 100 talks, interviews and creative outputs for academic, professional and lay audiences. She has supervised 10 PhD students, mentored 8 post-doctorate research fellows and examined 11 doctorate theses.

Lina chairs the University of York’s Children and Young People’s Mental Health Policy Research Group and is the Clinical Safety Officer for PCMIS Health Technologies Ltd, a University of York trading company. She is a member of the Student Fitness to Practice Committee at Hull York Medical School and the Clinical Trials Sponsorship Committee at the University of York.

Currently, Lina serves as joint editor for the international journal ‘Child and Adolescent Mental Health’, external examiner for the University of Birmingham, clinical expert for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and funding committee member for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Mental Health
Research Groups and Leaders Awards.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Health Services Research. King’s College London.
  • BN (Hons) Nursing Studies. University of Nottingham.
  • Registered Nurse in Mental Health (RMN), Nursing & Midwifery Council
  • BA (Hons) Adult Behavioural Psychotherapy, Sheffield Hallam University
  • PGCert Behavioural Psychotherapeutic Studies, Sheffield Hallam University & Sheffield Community Health NHS Trust.
  • ENB 650 & ENB Higher Award Specialist Practitioner in Mental Health. English National Board

Research

Overview

Funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Lina’s work on child and adolescent mental health includes three randomised controlled trials with economic evaluations on behavioural activation for adolescent depression, single session treatment for severe and debilitating childhood phobias, and a group intervention to improve quality of life for children living with parental mental illness.

In collaboration with industry partners, Lina translated therapy principles into digital products: a computer game that can teach graded exposure therapy to children with phobias and a virtual environments system to help adults with social anxiety and children with social communication difficulties. Lina also led an NIHR-funded series of evidence synthesis on costs and outcomes of digital mental health interventions.

Working with the York Law School, Lina is co-investigator in two projects: administrative fairness in healthcare, funded by SPARKS, and mental health and wellbeing within the police workforce, funded jointly by the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre and the Institute of Mental Health Research at York. With colleagues at the University of York Europe Campus, CITY U.L.E. Thessaloniki Greece, and partners from 10 European countries, Lina co-leads one of the work-packages for the project Mentbest ‘Protecting Mental Health at Times of Change’ funded by Horizon 2022.

Projects

Highlights of current and recent projects:

  • Chief investigator of a national PGfAR-funded research programme called ComBAT (Community-based Behavioural Activation Training for Depression in Adolescents)
  • Chief investigator HTA-funded evidence synthesis called CODI (Costs and Outcomes of Digital Interventions).
  • Chair of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Policy Research Group, funded by The York Policy Engine, in collaboration with the Centre for Mental Health: a synthesis of evidence to help shape and respond to policy priorities in children and young people’s mental health.
  • Dissemination lead for HTA-funded clinical trial (ASPECT) (one-session treatment for childhood phobias).
  • Knowledge mobilisation lead for the NIHR-funded Work and Health research project (Support2Work) evaluating the impact of employment advisors in NHS Talking Therapies.
  • Coapplicant and mentor for the £11 million NIHR-funded Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research
    based at the University of Hull.
  • Co-lead of evidence-synthesis work-package for the Horizon-funded project Mentbest ‘Protecting Mental Health at Times of Change’.
  • Joint lead of RfPB-funded feasibility trial on behavioural activation to improve depression among people with kidney failure undergoing haemodialysis.

Research group(s)

  • Mental Health and Addiction Research Group (MHARG)
  • Centre for Health and Population Sciences (CHaPS)
  • Child Oriented Mental Health Intervention Centre (COMIC)
  • Digital Creativity Labs (DCLabs)
  • Intelligent Games and Games Intelligence (IGGI)

Supervision

Lina is interested in supervising PhD students in two areas:

  • digital technologies in mental health
  • children and young people’s mental health

Publications

Full publications list

Teaching

Undergraduate

MBBS, Hull York Medical School, University of York

  • Ethics & Professionalism
  • Scholarship & Special Interest Programme (SSIP) – Phase I
  • Scholarship & Special Interest Programme (SSIP) – Phase II
  • Critically Appraised Topics (CATs)
  • Health & Society

Postgraduate

Current PhD students:

  • Pengfei Wang, Department of Health Sciences, University of York. ‘The relationship between urban living environments and mental health’.
  • Prenika Anand, Department of Computer Science, University of York. ‘Artificial Intelligence and Older Adults’
  •  Georgia Papaioannou, Hull York Medical School, University of York, based at CITY College University of York Europe Campus Thessaloniki Greece. ‘Mental Health of Older Adults in Time of Digital Change’.
  • Abdulaziz Alanazi, Department of Health Sciences, University of York. ‘Value of bariatric surgery in the treatment of morbidly obese patients in Saudi Arabia’.
  • Cristobal Catalan, School of Arts and Creative Technologies, University of York. ‘Story-led Games for Mental Health’.
  • Rebecca Haythorne, Department of Health Sciences, University of York. ‘Active recreation for adults with learning disabilities.
  • Michael Saiger, Department of Computer Science, University of York. ‘Applied Games for Treating Phobias in Children’.

 

 

Other teaching

PhD Thesis Advisory & Progression Panel

  • 2024 – current: Aqsa Shafique, Health Sciences, based at Khyber Medical University Pakistan. ‘Depression in adolescents in Pakistan.’ Funded by the collaborative PhD Programme of the Centre for Impact South Asia.
  • 2024 – current: Dana Clemmensen, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology. ‘Online choirs and mental wellbeing’. Funded by White Rose College of Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH) Doctoral Training Partnership.
  • 2018 – 2022 Claudia Nader Jaime, Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media. ‘Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR): Differential psychological and physiological responses according to sound format’.

Examination

  • Dec 2023 Internal Examiner (Viva Voce). Claudia Nader Jaime, PhD, University of York, School of Arts and Creative Technologies. ‘Sound formats in ASMR-inducing Media and their Effects in Youth Wellbeing’.
  • Nov 2023 Independent Chair (Viva Voce). Paulo Saldanha, PhD, University of Hull, Hull York Medical School. ‘Biochemical characterisation of the interaction of the myosin light chain phosphatase with the regulatory subunits of protein kinase A in cells of the circulatory system’.
  • Oct 2022 Internal Examiner (Viva Voce). Lauren Aylott, PhD, University of York, Hull York Medical School. ‘Assessing professionalism for the selection of mental health clinicians: the development and validation of a situational judgement test’.
  • Oct 2020 Internal Examiner (Viva Voce). Helen Ford, PhD, Department of Health Sciences, University of York. ‘What are the factors that mental health nurses use when deciding to give pro re nata medication for patient agitation?’
  • Oct 2019 Internal Examiner (Viva Voce). Sunaina Parsons, MD, University of York, Hull York Medical School. ‘The Trial That Goes Wrong: Application of the model of organizational accidents to understanding the failure of clinical trials: Case study of a UK public sector-funded clinical trial of an investigational medicinal product.’
  • Feb 2019 Internal Examiner (Prima Facie). Laura Manea, PhD by Published Work, Hull York Medical School, University of York. ‘Screening for major depressive disorder in non-psychiatric settings’

 

External activities

Overview

Clinical Safety Officer, PCMIS Health Technologies Ltd.

Nurse Consultant in Psychological Therapies, Tees Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Trust, Research Development Department.

Professorial Fellow, South East European Research Centre (SEERC), University of York Europe Campus, CITY College, Thessaloniki Greece.

External Examiner, MSc in Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham.

Expert Member, Specialist Selection Committee, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Funding programme: Mental Health Research Groups and Mental Health Leaders Awards.

Expert Advisor, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Scientific Advice Service.

Expert Advisor, Wellcome Trust, Intellectual Property Management Group for the project ‘SlowMo2’.

Editorial duties

 

Invited talks and conferences

Academic events (5 selected)

  • Nov 2023 ComBAT: Community-based Behavioural Activation Training for Depression in Adolescents. Online conference. Cundill Centre for Child and Youth Depression, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.
  • June 2023 ‘Technology and Mental Health for Children and Adolescents: Pros and Cons”. CAMH 2023 Lecture. Royal Society of Medicine, London.
  • Apr 2023 Community-based interventions for depression with children and adolescents: behavioural activation as a case in point. Stakeholder Meeting “Community-based Interventions Targeting Depression and Suicidal Behavior” European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD), Brussels, Belgium.
  • May 2022 COmBAT ready? A trial of Community-delivered Behavioural Activation Training for Depression in Adolescents. UK Child Psychiatry Research Society (CPRS) Meeting, Alcuin Research Resource Centre, York.
  • Mar 2022 Technology and the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health: The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent. [Webinar] [Online] Stanford Hubinar: COVID-19 and Technology Use. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine.

 Public events (5 selected)

  • Sept 2023 ‘Lean and Scalable Interventions in Mental Health’. GovConnect Annual Mental Health Conference 2023 "Delivering Collaborative Whole Pathways of Care", Royal Society of Medicine, London. https://youtu.be/C1SBpdYRp9Y?feature=shared.
  • June 2023 ‘Reimagining Healthcare: Treating the body and mind’ Panel discussant. King’s Manor, York. York Festival of Ideas.
  • May 2023 'From spiders and dogs, to vomit and needles: single-session phobia treatment for children and adolescents'. York Festival of Ideas, in collaboration with The Angel on the Green​.​
  • Jan 2023 'From spiders and dogs, to vomit and needles: single-session phobia treatment for children and adolescents' at YorkTalks 2023. York Talks, University of York, York, UK. https://youtu.be/k4lN4oxfbz0
  • Apr 2021 Effects of digital transformation on the psychology of workers and students during the pandemic [Webinar] [Online]. Digital Talks @DT&S: The Digital Transformation at work, in education, in our daily lives (translation from Greek). Cisco Digital Transformation and Skills (DT&S) and CITY College, University of York European Campus. Available at: https://youtu.be/2EUTPFvlzN0 (2021, 07 April, 00.01:34- 00.01:45).

 

Media coverage

Interviews and podcasts (5 selected)

Contact details

Professor Lina Gega
Professor of Mental Health

Tel: 01904 32(1870)

HYMS Logo