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Biography
Dr Joy Llewellyn-Beardsley is a mental health researcher and member of the Recovery Research Team, based at the Nottingham Institute of Mental Health. Her expertise is in the uses of narratives in mental health research and interventions, and placing lived experience at the heart of mental health research. She also has experience of critical approaches to qualitative health research, clinical trials and systematic reviews. From 2016-2023 she was a member of the NEON (Narrative Experiences Online) study team, funded by the NIHR to evaluate whether having access to an online collection of lived experience mental health recovery narratives could help other people affected by mental health challenges. She is currently working on the C-STACS study of mental health citizen science.
She gained her PhD in 2023, a critical approach to the uses of narratives in mental health, which investigated the experiences of people from marginalised communities in telling their mental health stories, and explored how their narratives both reinforced and disrupted the recovery framework.
Her publications can be found on her Google Scholar profile, including a widely-cited systematic review of characteristics of mental health recovery narratives.
Prior to moving into research, Joy was a community and youth worker, and has 20 years' experience of management and development work in the voluntary sector. She was the founding director of the charity SAYiT, Sheffield's LGBTQ+ youth service, and a co-founder of Out Aloud, Sheffield's LGBTQ+ choir. She lives in Sheffield with her wife and dog.
Expertise Summary
Narrative approaches to health research
Uses of lived experiences narratives in healthcare
Critical qualitative approaches to health research
Systematic reviews
Qualitative research in RCTs
Research Summary
Please see my summary in the "personal details" section above