Dr Madeleine Benton is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. She was awarded a 1-year NIHR Maudsley BRC Career Development Postdoctoral Fellowship to explore aspects of perinatal mental health for women with gestational diabetes mellitus. She is experienced at the physical-mental interface of women’s and children’s wellbeing and has a focus on cross-disciplinary collaborations to reduce health inequalities.

She first joined King’s College London as a Trial Manager and Postdoctoral Research Associate. She was responsible for leading an MRC funded feasibility randomised controlled trial and testing the effectiveness of a digital diabetes prevention intervention for women with gestational diabetes mellitus in Malaysia. Secondly, developing a research programme on mental health care for people with type 1 diabetes.

Dr Benton was awarded her PhD in 2020 from the University of Adelaide in Australia after completing her doctoral thesis in perinatal mental health. During her doctoral studies, she acquired skills in conducting a randomised controlled trial and the integration of qualitative methods within this design.

Expertise and Public Engagement

She is passionate about ensuring research in women’s health and perinatal mental health is more accessible to the public. She is proactive in undertaking public engagement activities, works closely with numerous patient and public groups, and presents her work at academic and public events at national and international levels.