Professor Elizabeth McDermott

PhD in Applied Social Science (2003), Lancaster University

MSc in Health Research and Policy (1998), Liverpool John Moores University

BA (Hons) Health, (1996), Liverpool John Moores University

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (2009), University of York

Professor McDermott has held academic posts in the Institute of Health Research at Lancaster University as a research associate/fellow. Then moved to the Dept. Social Policy & Social Work at the University of York, to take up post as a permanent lecturer in Health Policy. After seven years, she returned to Lancaster University as a Senior Lecturer in Health Research in the Faculty of Health & Medicine and subsequently was promoted to Professor of Health Inequality. Prior to an academic career, she worked in public health (mental and sexual health) (NHS) in Liverpool for a decade

Postgraduate 

MSc Mental Health

• Sociology of Mental Health & Illness

Undergraduate 

BA Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology

• Mental Health & Society

Elizabeth would welcome PhD students interested in aspects of the following: 

• LGBTQ+ youth mental health
• Mental health inequality (e.g. gender, ethnicity, social class)
• Young people’s mental health help-seeking
• Public health prevention and reduction in youth mental health
• Mental health policy

• LGBTQ+ mental health
• Youth mental health
• Mental Health Inequalitites (e.g. gender, ethnicity)
• Mental Health Prevention and Promotion
• Mental Health Policy
• Mental Health Interventions
• Theory-led Evaluation Methodologies 

Current projects: 

Queer Futures 2+ is a collaboration between Lancaster University and University of Birmingham funded by the ESRC. The study uses Foucauldian Discourse Analysis to examine the barriers and facilitators to integrated care for LGBTQ+ young people’s mental health support (2023-25). 

The Trevor Project is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham led by Prof McDermott and the US-based charity to generate a UK Survey of LGBTQ+ mental health (2022-6). https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-international/uk/2024/en/ 

The Good Measure Project is an international collaboration across 6 universities that aims to advance the measurement of gender and sexual dimensions of adolescent mental health and wellbeing. It is funded by the Medical Research Council (2022-5)   

The Queer Futures 2 study (funded by NIHR 2019-2023) aimed to produce a model of early intervention mental health support for LGBTQ+ young people with common mental health problems (e.g. anxiety and depression). The project involved LGBTQ+ young people, CAMHS practitioners, schools, clinicians, local authority and the third sector. The major outputs from this study are available online including NHS commissioning guidelines for LGBTQ+ youth mental health services across a range of settings 

The CLASS study funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research (2019-2022) aimed to evaluate the impact on young people’s mental health of interventions that tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools.

Member of the NIHR Public Health Funding Committee