Blossom Fernandes

I am a Project Manager/Research Coordinator for the Wellcome Global Mental Health Databank Project. This study is led by Prof. Mina Fazel here at Oxford Psychiatry and by Prof. Tamsin Ford at the University of Cambridge. As part of this research we are collating information on adolescents' mental health in the UK, India (Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy at the Indian Law Society) and South Africa (Walter Sisulu University).The aim of this project essentially is to utilise the information we gather to identify the best form of care, treatment and prevention for common mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. 

Alongside this, I am involved in the Co-PACT project which examines the experiences of service users detained under the Mental Health Act. 

As part of the OxWell study group I explore the impact of lifestyle factors such as diet on children and adolescent's mental health.

More generally, I am interested in emotional problems that emerge during childhood and adolescence. I completed my PhD at Roehampton University where I focused on emotion regulation and executive functions to understand these emerging emotional problems, using a combination of self reports and experimental tasks. I'm also involved in studies exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people's emotional well-being in low and middle income countries.