HOW THE NCMH CARRIES OUT ITS ASSESSMENTS
Lowri O’Donovan, 23, lives in Cyncoed, Cardiff, and joined the field team at the National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH) in October 2016.
With her sights set on a career in clinical psychology, her role as a psychology assistant with NCMH has been an eye-opening experience and an opportunity to see how mental health issues affect people in their day-to-day lives.
“It’s my first job related to mental health and psychology,” Lowri explained. “During my psychology degree at the University of Birmingham I learnt about the risk factors associated with mental health conditions.
“Doing this job has really highlighted how difficult it is to predict what could trigger a change in someone’s mental wellbeing.”
Lowri and her colleagues go out to meet people, from all walks of life, who have volunteered for the research taking place at NCMH.
To date, more than 7,000 people have taken part.
“I’m part of a busy team and we spend most of our week visiting people, which is great for me as it’s the part of the job I enjoy the most.
“We also attend a number of events and clinics to help spread the word about our research and also get people talking more about mental health to help fight the stigma associated with mental health conditions.
“I love meeting with the people who volunteer their time to help us investigate the causes of mental health conditions. Participants don’t receive any financial incentive for taking part so they’re doing it because they have a genuine wish to help.”
A face-to-face assessment with the NCMH usually lasts around an hour.
First the research is explained to