Dr Ursula Read
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Email
ursula.read@essex.ac.uk -
Location
Colchester Campus
Profile
Biography
I trained as an occupational therapist and worked in mental health services in London before gaining an ESRC doctoral fellowship in anthropology at University College London. Since being awarded my PhD in 2012 I have conducted extensive research and teaching in global mental health working closely with international colleagues. I joined the University of Essex as lecturer in global public health in January 2024. I draw on my research experience to inform my teaching in qualitative research methods and public mental health. My research interests are in the anthropology of mental health with a particular focus on Ghana as a productive location for the emergence of global mental health and its entanglements with colonial and postcolonial histories and practices surrounding mental illness, care, healing and mental health service provision. I have conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Ghana, exploring lived experiences of psychosis and family care, traditional and faith healing and psychiatric treatment, moral and ethical dilemmas around care and consent, the expansion of community mental health services and the globalisation of rights-based approaches to mental health. I work closely with people with lived experience of mental illness, filmmakers and artists using participatory and arts-based methods, such as film and drama, to engage diverse audiences in mental health advocacy and activism. Since 2019 I have been awarded funding from the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund to conduct research with colleagues at the University of Ghana and Universitas Gadjah Mada Indonesia. This has included using ethnographic documentary to explore partnerships between mental health services and traditional and faith healers (Together for Mental Health) and using peer research and participatory video to understand the impact of COVID-19 on people living with serious mental illness. I have also been awarded a number of impact grants which have enabled us to share our research findings with participants, communities and stakeholders. I have led qualitative and ethnographic research for several mixed methods studies, training international research teams in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. This includes the MRC CONTACT study using health advocacy in places of worship in the Caribbean and NIHR TRANSFORM, which works with traditional and faith healers in Nigeria and Bangladesh to improve access to mental health services. I have also conducted qualitative research on the social determinants of mental health for young adults from diverse ethnicities in London for the MRC DASH cohort study. I am Principal Investigator for an international network funded by UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) working with people with lived experience of mental health conditions in Ghana and Indonesia to explore the potential of creative arts for mental health advocacy and activism. I am also Co-Investigator on the NIHR HOPE project on homelessness and mental health in Africa co-leading formative ethnography on experiences of homelessness and mental illness in Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya and capacity development activities. I currently co-supervise 4 PhD students from Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Dominica and welcome doctoral students who wish to conduct qualitative, participatory or mixed methods research relating to mental health.
Qualifications
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PhD Anthropology University College London, (2012)
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MRes Anthropology University College London, (2006)
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MSc Medical Anthropology University College London, (2005)
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PGDip Occupational Therapy Queen Mary and Westfield College, (1999)
Appointments
University of Essex
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Lecturer in Global Public Health, School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex (2/1/2024 - present)
Other academic
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Honorary Research Fellow, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick (2/1/2024 - present)
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Honorary Research Fellow, King's College London (4/1/2021 - present)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Global mental health
Participatory research and arts-based methods
Anthropology and ethnography of mental health
Mental health in Africa and the global South, specifically Ghana
Spirituality and religion in mental health care, including the use of traditional and faith healers
Human rights, social justice and mental health activism
Mental health and lived experience
Conferences and presentations
'Somewhere where someone will take care of you’: ruination and repair in psychiatric hospitals in Ghana
The future (of) hospitals, biomedicine and care: perspectives from Africa, Accra, Ghana, 3/12/2024
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Data Collection, Analysis and Interpretation (HS908)
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Advancing Occupational Therapy Practice in Diverse Communities (HS371)
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Advancing Occupational Therapy practice in Diverse Communities (HS807)
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Public Mental Health (HS958)
Publications
Journal articles (28)
Mathias, K., Bunkley, N., Pillai, P., Ae-Ngibise, KA., Kpobi, L., Taylor, D., Joag, K., Rawat, M., Hammoudeh, W., Mitwalli, S., Kagee, A., van Rensburg, A., Bemme, D., Burgess, RA., Jain, S., Kienzler, H. and Read, UM., (2024). Inverting the deficit model in global mental health: An examination of strengths and assets of community mental health care in Ghana, India, Occupied Palestinian territories, and South Africa. PLOS Global Public Health. 4 (3), e0002575-e0002575
Kpobi, L., Read, UM., Selormey, RK. and Colucci, E., (2024). 'We are all working toward one goal. We want people to become well': A visual exploration of what promotes successful collaboration between community mental health workers and healers in Ghana.. Transcultural Psychiatry. 61 (1), 30-46
Gobin, R., Thomas, T., Goberdhan, S., Sharma, M., Nasiiro, R., Emmanuel, R., Rambaran, M., McFarlane, S., Elia, C., Van-Veen, D., Govia, I., Palmer, T., Read, U., Cruickshank, JK., Samuels, TA., Wilks, R. and Harding, S., (2024). Readiness of primary care centres for a community-based intervention to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases in the Caribbean: A participatory, mixed-methods study. PLOS ONE. 19 (4), e0301503-e0301503
Read, UM., Kienzler, H., Mitwalli, S., Rabaia, Y., Sakyi, L. and Osei-Tutu, A., (2024). The ambiguities of social inclusion in mental health: learning from lived experience of serious mental illness in Ghana and the occupied Palestinian territory.. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 59 (3), 503-513
Bemme, D., Roberts, T., Ae-Ngibise, KA., Read, U. and et al, (2024). Mutuality as a method: advancing a social paradigm for global mental health through mutual learning.. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 59 (3), 545-553
Emmanuel, R., Read, UM., Grande, AJ. and Harding, S., (2023). Acceptability and Feasibility of Community Gardening Interventions for the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases among Indigenous Populations: A Scoping Review. Nutrients. 15 (3), 791-791
Read, UM., Jilka, S. and Singh, SP., (2023). Collaborating with Traditional and Faith Healers in Mental Health: A Public Health Approach. World Social Psychiatry. 5 (2), 144-148
Kaduka, L., Olale, J., Karamanos, A., Mutai, J., Coultas, C., Ahmed, I., L'Esperance, V., Read, U., Dazzan, P., Cruickshank, JK., Muniu, E. and Harding, S., (2023). Contextually appropriate communication strategies for COVID-19 prevention in Kenya border regions: evidence from a mixed methods observational study in Busia and Mandera counties. BMJ Open. 13 (5), e062686-e062686
Singh, SP., Jilka, S., Abdulmalik, J., Bouliotis, G., Chadda, R., Egbokhare, O., Huque, R., Hundt, GL., Iyer, S., Jegede, O., Khera, N., Lilford, R., Madan, J., Omigbodun, A., Omigbodun, O., Raja, T., Read, UM., Siddiqi, BA., Sood, M., Soron, TR. and Ahmed, HU., (2022). Transforming access to care for serious mental disorders in slums (the TRANSFORM Project): rationale, design and protocol. BJPsych Open. 8 (6)
Read, UM., Sakyi, L. and Abbey, W., (2020). Exploring the potential of a rights-based approach hhr_final_logo_alone.Indd to work and social inclusion for people with lived experience of mental illness in ghana. Health and Human Rights. 22 (1), 91-104
Read, UM., (2019). Rights as Relationships: Collaborating with Faith Healers in Community Mental Health in Ghana. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. 43 (4), 613-635
Lovell, AM., Read, UM. and Lang, C., (2019). Genealogies and Anthropologies of Global Mental Health. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. 43 (4), 519-547
Read and van der Geest, (2019). Introduction to Special Issue on Intimacy, Morality, and Precarity: Globalization and Family Care in Africa—Insights from Ghana. Africa Today. 65 (3), vii-vii
Read and Nyame, (2019). “It Is Left to Me and My God”: Precarity, Responsibility, and Social Change in Family Care for People with Mental Illness in Ghana. Africa Today. 65 (3), 3-3
Read, UM., Karamanos, A., João Silva, M., Molaodi, OR., Enayat, ZE., Cassidy, A., Cruickshank, JK. and Harding, S., (2018). The influence of racism on cigarette smoking: Longitudinal study of young people in a British multiethnic cohort. PLOS ONE. 13 (1), e0190496-e0190496
Faconti, L., Silva, MJ., Molaodi, OR., Enayat, ZE., Cassidy, A., Karamanos, A., Nanino, E., Read, UM., Dall, P., Stansfield, B., Harding, S. and Cruickshank, KJ., (2016). Can arterial wave augmentation in young adults help account for variability of cardiovascular risk in different British ethnic groups?. Journal of Hypertension. 34 (11), 2220-2226
Harding, S., Silva, MJ., Molaodi, OR., Enayat, ZE., Cassidy, A., Karamanos, A., Read, UM. and Cruickshank, JK., (2016). Longitudinal study of cardiometabolic risk from early adolescence to early adulthood in an ethnically diverse cohort. BMJ Open. 6 (12), e013221-e013221
Cruickshank, JK., Silva, MJ., Molaodi, OR., Enayat, ZE., Cassidy, A., Karamanos, A., Read, UM., Faconti, L., Dall, P., Stansfield, B. and Harding, S., (2016). Ethnic Differences in and Childhood Influences on Early Adult Pulse Wave Velocity. Hypertension. 67 (6), 1133-1141
Read, U., (2015). Black Skin, White Coats: Nigerian Psychiatrists, Decolonization and the Globalization of Psychiatry, 2013, by Matthew M. Heaton. Anthropology & Medicine. 22 (3), 330-333
Harding, S., Read, UM., Molaodi, OR., Cassidy, A., Maynard, MJ., Lenguerrand, E., Astell-Burt, T., Teyhan, A., Whitrow, M. and Enayat, ZE., (2015). The Determinants of young Adult Social well-being and Health (DASH) study: diversity, psychosocial determinants and health. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 50 (8), 1173-1188
Reid, A., Lenguerrand, E., Santos, I., Read, U., LaMontagne, AD., Fritschi, L. and Harding, S., (2014). Taking risks and survival jobs: Foreign-born workers and work-related injuries in Australia. Safety Science. 70, 378-386
Read, UM., (2014). Health inequalities: from ethnicity to diversity. Ethnicity & Health. 19 (2), 119-121
Read, UM. and Doku, VC., (2012). Mental health research in Ghana: a literature review.. Ghana medical journal. 46 (2 Suppl), 29-38
Read, U., (2012). “I want the one that will heal me completely so it won’t come back again”: The limits of antipsychotic medication in rural Ghana. Transcultural Psychiatry. 49 (3-4), 438-460
Doku, V., Ofori-Atta, A., Akpalu, B., Osei, A., Read, U., Cooper, S. and the MHaPP Research Programme Consor, (2011). Stakeholders' perceptions of the main challenges facing Ghana's mental health care system: a qualitative analysis. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health. 4 (1), 8-22
Awenva, AD., Read, UM., Ofori-Attah, AL., Doku, VCK., Akpalu, B., Osei, AO. and Flisher, AJ., (2010). From mental health policy development in Ghana to implementation: What are the barriers?. African Journal of Psychiatry (South Africa). 13 (3), 184-191
Ofori-Atta, A., Read, UM. and Lund, C., (2010). A situation analysis of mental health services and legislation in Ghana: challenges for transformation. African Journal of Psychiatry. 13 (2), 99-108
Read, UM., Adiibokah, E. and Nyame, S., (2009). Local suffering and the global discourse of mental health and human rights: An ethnographic study of responses to mental illness in rural Ghana. Globalization and Health. 5 (1), 13-
Books (1)
(2017). The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan UK. 9781137395092
Book chapters (7)
Read, U. and Colucci, E., (2023). Human Rights and Psychosis. In: Psychosis: Global Perspectives. Editors: Morgan, C., Cohen, A. and Roberts, T., . Oxford University Press. 0198735588. 9780198735588
Read, U., (2020). 'Clearing the streets’: Enacting human rights in mental health care in Ghana. In: Global health and the new world order Historical and anthropological approaches to a changing regime of governance. Editors: Gaudilliere, J-P., Beaudevin, C., Gradmann, C., Lovell, A. and Pordie, L., . Manchester University Press. 1526149664. 9781526149664
White, RG., Orr, DMR., Read, UM. and Jain, S., (2017). Situating Global Mental Health: Sociocultural Perspectives. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan UK. 1- 27. 9781137395092
Read, U., (2017). ‘Doctor sickness’ or ‘pastor sickness’? Contested domains of healing power in the treatment of mental illness in Kintampo, Ghana. In: Spirit and Mind: Mental Health at the Intersection of Religion and Psychiatry. Editors: Basu, H., Littlewood, R. and Steinforth, A., . LIT Verlag Münster. 3643907079. 9783643907073
Read, U., (2016). Madness and miracles: Hoping for healing in rural Ghana. In: Cosmos, Gods and Madmen: Frameworks in the Anthropologies of Medicine. Editors: Littlewood, R. and Lynch, R., . Berghahn Books. 1785331787. 9781785331787
Read, UM., Doku, VCK. and Aikins, ADG., (2015). Schizophrenia and psychosis in West Africa. In: The Culture of Mental Illness and Psychiatric Practice in Africa. 73- 111
Ofori-Atta, A., Read, UM. and Lund, C., (2014). An updated situation analysis of mental health services and legislation in Ghana: Challenges for transformation. In: Changing Trends in Mental Health Care and Research in Ghana. 17- 46
Conferences (1)
Harding, S., Elia, C., Huang, P., Atherton, C., Covey, K., O'Donnell, G., Cole, E., Almughamisi, M., Read, UM., Dregan, A., George, T., Wolfe, I., Cruickshank, JK., Maynard, M., Goff, LM. and O'Keeffe, M., (2018). Global cities and cultural diversity: challenges and opportunities for young people's nutrition
Grants and funding
2024
NIHR Global Health Research Group on Homeless People with severe mental illness in Africa (HOPE)
National Institute for Health Research
