Creative Methods and Digital Media: Supporting Psychological Therapies

Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.19507
In this podcast, we are joined by Professor Lina Gega, professor of mental health at the University of York and honorary nurse consultant in psychological therapies at Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Trust. Lina is also a joint editor of the Child & Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) journal, one of the three journals produced by the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Lina sets the scene by providing an insight into how she came to specialise in cognitive behavioural therapy and digital mental health, as well as what makes digital media so applicable to child and adolescent mental health.
With the COVID pandemic having been an accelerator for digital technologies, Lina discusses her recently published paper on the impact of digital technology during the pandemic, including what conclusions she drew and how this impacts children and young people.
Lina also talks us through her work on several interesting projects and provides insight into their aims, plus findings. For a number of her projects, Lina has teamed up with colleagues from outside of academia to develop prototypes for digital tools for children with different emotional vulnerabilities.
Lina discusses what barriers and challenges she has faced when translating research into practise and explores how to overcome these to make a real difference to families.
Furthermore, as Lina has published over 70 papers, books, and book chapters, plus has worked with publishers, universities, NHS services, charities, and grant-awarding bodies as a research advisor and reviewer, Lina shares her advice for researchers, in particular those early in their careers who want to achieve and maintain high standards in the conduct and reporting of research.