Dr Rebecca Syed Sheriff M BChoxon MSc Med Dip MRCPsych FRANZCP PhD

• PhD, Deans Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence, University of Adelaide, Australia (2019)
• Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Australia (2015)
• Australia Health Practioners Regulation Agency, Australia (2013)
• GMC specialist register for Psychiatry with the liaison subspecialty, UK (2009)
• Certificate of Completion of Training (PMetB), UK (2009)
• Medical Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis, London College of Clinical Hypnosis, UK (2008)
• Master of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia (2006)
• Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK (2004)
• Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, University of Oxford, UK (2000)
• Master of Arts, Physiology (Hons), II.1, University of Oxford, UK (2000)

After studying medicine and playing rugby at Balliol College, Oxford, Rebecca’s career has been an international one.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK. She has lived and worked in Colombia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.  In addition, during her training at the Institute of Psychiatry, she led a project to introduce formal mental health training in Somaliland.

Since returning to the UK in March 2020, Rebecca initially worked at the University of Oxford and conceptualised and led O-ACE (Online Active Community Engagement), a collaborative project between the Department of Psychuatry, GLAM (Garden’s Libraries and Museums) and the Oxford Internet Institute. This project engaged people aged 16-24 to find out what supports their mental health and find ways to optimise online cultural resources.

Rebecca is now the Lead Investigator for ORIGIN (Optimising cultural expeRIences for mental health in underrepresented younG people onlINne) which aims to have a positive impact on the mental health of young people and is funded by the NIHR. The study involves listening to the experiences of diverse people aged 16-24, co-designing an online arts and culture intervention aimed at reducing anxiety and depression, and then testing this in a randomised controlled trial.

Rebecca is interested in supervising students who are interested in the following topics:

Youth mental health, arts and culture, sport, codesign

Epidemiology: She has analysed large datasets looking at risky driving in the British military as well as early predictors of poor mental health outcomes in the Australian military and comparing them to the general Australian population. 

Evidence Synthesis: She has evaluated trials from low- and middle-income countries and relevance to their needs. She was joint co-ordinating editor of the Cochrane schizophrenia group, a world leader in producing the best evidence to inform healthcare. 

Codesign: She co-led research with young people co-designing an online museum for youth mental health which is currently being optimised for more underrepresented young people .

Evaluation: She evaluated the impact of COVID-19 on services including telepsychiatry. She also conducted the first ever randomised controlled trial of an online museum for youth mental health and am currently leading research which will codesigning and testing an online arts and culture intervention for mental health in underrepresented young people.