Oliver Beuthin

I am a DPhil student supervised by Prof. Kamaldeep Bhui and Prof. Ly-Mee Yu in the Department of Psychiatry. I am interested in the cultural adaptation of digital mental health interventions to enable greater access to mental health treatment for minorities including refugees.

My doctoral research involves culturally adapting and evaluating the feasibility of a digital intervention to reduce suicidal thinking for Syrian refugees in the UK. The research will draw from experience-based co-design, an action research method, to iteratively co-design the intervention with and for Syrian refugees. The first phase will include exploring the experiences of Syrian refugees during the migratory process, their cultural conceptualisations, coping strategies and help-seeking behaviour for mental health and suicidal thinking, and then co-designing an existing intervention for the general population. The second phase will involve evaluating the feasibility of the culturally adapted intervention and recruitment capacity. 

Prior to commencing my DPhil, I completed an MSC in Social Cognition at UCL, a MA in Sociocultural Linguistics at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a BA in Political Studies and Arabic at UWC.