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Angela Sweeney

Dr Angela Sweeney

Senior Lecturer in User Led Research

Research interests

  • Population Health
  • Psychiatry

Biography

Dr Angela Sweeney identifies as a trauma survivor and survivor researcher. She conducted her first survivor research project as an undergraduate student in 1998. In 2001 she joined the (then Sainsbury) Centre for Mental Health as a researcher on a study of the British Survivor Movement (On Our Own Terms, 2003) before moving to the Service User Research Enterprise where she gained a PhD in medical sociology. After working at the Social Care Institute for Excellence and UCL, and completing an NIHR Post-Doctoral Fellowship at St George's, Angela returned to SURE as Director in 2021.

Dr Sweeney is co-editor of Searching for a Rose Garden: challenging psychiatry, fostering Mad Studies (2016), and lead editor of This is Survivor Research (2009). She is currently undertaking an NIHR Development and Skills Fellowship.

Research Interests

  • Survivor led research
  • Trauma informed approaches
  • Parenting and the perinatal period
  • Gender based violence
  • Alternatives to biomedical psychiatry

Expertise and Public Engagement

  • Co-Chair of the Trauma-Informed Community of Action. 
  • Loneliness and Social Isolation in Mental Health Research Network Advisory Group.
  • NIHR ARC Mental Health Implementation Network Advisory Board.

    Research

    SURE banner
    Service User Research Enterprise

    SURE (the Service User Research Enterprise) is a unique academic research group comprised predominantly of neurodivergent researchers and survivor researchers with direct experience of trauma violence and abuse, mental distress, and/or using (or refusing) mental health services. SURE offers Advisory Sessions on patient and public involvement (PPI) to researchers in Mental Health and Psychological Sciences (IoPPN) and the Centre for Society and Mental Health (KCL). Please visit our booking page to find out more.

    At the edge of care: a systematic review

    The aim of this project was to develop our knowledge of experiences of support for families with mental health needs and children’s social services involvement

    Project status: Completed

      Research

      SURE banner
      Service User Research Enterprise

      SURE (the Service User Research Enterprise) is a unique academic research group comprised predominantly of neurodivergent researchers and survivor researchers with direct experience of trauma violence and abuse, mental distress, and/or using (or refusing) mental health services. SURE offers Advisory Sessions on patient and public involvement (PPI) to researchers in Mental Health and Psychological Sciences (IoPPN) and the Centre for Society and Mental Health (KCL). Please visit our booking page to find out more.

      At the edge of care: a systematic review

      The aim of this project was to develop our knowledge of experiences of support for families with mental health needs and children’s social services involvement

      Project status: Completed