Najma Siddiqi

Dr Najma Siddiqi is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Mental Health and Addictions Research Group (MHARG), Department of Health Sciences. She holds a joint appointment with the Hull York Medical School and an honorary appointment with Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, as a Consultant Psychiatrist.

Najma leads MHARG’s Mental and Physical Health Comorbidity theme (https://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/mental-health/ourresearch/mental-physical-health-comorbidity/ ), which includes programmes of research on diabetes and mental illness (Diabetes and Mental Illness Improving Services and Outcomes (DIAMONDS)); and delirium in care homes and palliative care settings.

With the increasing burden of both mental illness and long-term conditions such as diabetes in the global South, Najma is keen to expand the work of her group to include research on this important area in low- and middle-income countries. There is a particular focus on South Asia, where long-term conditions such as heart disease and diabetes are rising rapidly; and where there are also opportunities for support for such work and for learning relevant to the UK population because of the presence of a large South Asian diaspora.

Najma leads a multidisciplinary collaboration- the IMPACT in South Asia Group (Improving Outcomes in Mental and Physical Multimorbidity and Developing Research Capacity), which includes researchers, health professionals and policymakers from the UK, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The Group was established with support from a Centre for Future Health Partnership grant with the purpose of developing research capacity in low- and middle-income countries and promoting world-leading interdisciplinary research that will make a major impact on improving the physical health of people with mental illness in South Asia.

najma.siddiqi@york.ac.uk