Dinithi Wijedasa – Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator
Dinithi is a Senior Lecturer at the Children and Families Research Centre within the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. Dinithi has a background in developmental psychology, secondary data analyses and statistics. Dinithi has extensive experience of conducting research into children living in out-of-home care placements and of management and analyses of large datasets including Census microdata, longitudinal survey data and longitudinal national administrative data concerning children in care. She is currently leading three research studies exploring the mental health of children in State care in England.
Yeosun Yoon – Senior research associate
Yeosun is a senior research associate at the University of Bristol. Yeosun has been involved in various research projects of children and young people’s mental health over the past 4 years, particularly those who are at higher risk of experiencing mental health difficulties. Yeosun’s research interest lies in health, education and economic inequality, particularly in children and young people and its impact on society using quantitative research methods.
Sarah Harding – Senior research associate
Sarah is a senior research associate in mixed methods public health research at the University of Bristol. She was responsible for the MH-CAT survey development. Previously she has been involved in research projects about wellbeing in secondary education and physical activity and sedentary behaviour in children and young people.
Florie Schmits – Senior research associate
Florie is interested in using research to inform and improve policy and strategy across different fields. The past five years she has been focusing on using administrative and survey data to generate evidence about children’s social care and system performance. She has applied quantitative methods to a variety of topics such as children at risk of re-entering foster care, foster home recruitment and retention and mental health of children and young people in care.
Rachel Hahn – Senior research associate
Rachel worked on the setting up and first phase of the MH-CAT study. She is a former social worker with experience working with refugees and asylum seekers and looked after children. Rachel has a passion for exploring ways of working therapeutically. She currently works for the Careers Service, supporting students and managing staff and student workers.
David Berridge – Advisor to the research
David is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bristol and has a long history of research with disadvantaged children and families. He currently acts as an advisor to the project.