Holly Bear

I am a senior postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychiatry. Using mixed methods, my research focuses on the evaluation, implementation, and sustainability of mental health and wellbeing interventions for young people, with a particular focus on digital and school-based interventions.

Projects 

• I am Research Coordinator and Schools Implementation Lead on the on the BrainWaves Study, an innovative new programme that includes (1) the development of a new cohort study of adolescent mental health and wellbeing and (2) the creation of a new trials platform to evaluate school-based mental health interventions.. 
• I am leading the Bridging the Gap Project to investigate the barriers and facilitators of implementing research into practice in child and adolescent mental health settings in order to make recommendations across clinical, commissioning, and academic settings.
• I am a researcher on the OxWell Student Survey (PI Prof Mina Fazel), a large schools-based survey exploring a wide range of factors related to child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing. I am exploring the extent to which adolescents' online behaviours are associated with mental health. 
• I am working with colleagues in Experimental Psychology to provide an initial qualitative evaluation of the acceptability and feasibility of Online Support and Intervention (OSI), an online pastoral worker-supported, parent-led CBT intervention for children with anxiety problems delivered in primary school settings in Liverpool.
• As part of the ECoWeB Project, I am using implementation frameworks to inform the evaluation and implementation of a smartphone based self-help intervention MyMoodCoach.

Prior to joining the University of Oxford, I worked as a Research Project Manager at the Anna Freud Centre in London. I completed a PhD in Evidence Based Child and Adolescent Mental Health at University College London in 2019, during which I explored the role of illness belief models in how young people experience and respond to anxiety and depression. I hold an MSc in Health Psychology from King's College London (2016) and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Glasgow (2013).