Centre for Psychological Health and Development

The Centre for Psychological Health and Development brings together a critical mass of international and national expertise in psychology and psychiatry from the Schools of Psychology and Vision Science and Health Sciences.

The centre addresses three overlapping lifespan health and wellbeing challenges:

• to understand and improve lifelong outcomes following perinatal adversity. Preterm birth and other perinatal adversities can adversely impact health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Understanding developmental trajectories and mechanisms to adverse health, developmental, psychological and educational outcomes is key to improving individuals' lifespan health and well-being and reducing the societal and economic consequences of such conditions.
• to consider how social and epidemiological psychiatry and psychology can improve our knowledge of the links between mental health disorders and co-morbid diseases in the context of clinical conditions, socio-economic status, and health and other societal outcomes. 
• to improve assessment and screening within care pathways across psychological and physical health conditions. Providing accurate measurement and diagnosis has implications for all aspects of health and wellbeing, including applying diagnostic criteria, understanding the etiology of disorders, facilitating accurate clinical decision-making, decreasing levels of misdiagnosis, and increasing patient engagement at critical care points across the lifespan and with particular populations.