Professor Tamsin Ford
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Head of Department of Psychiatry
Personal Statement
Tamsin Ford is an internationally renowned Child Psychiatric Epidemiologist who researches the organisation, delivery, and effectiveness of services and interventions for children and young people’s mental health.
Her work is inherently translational and cross-disciplinary and focuses on how to promote mental health, prevent mental ill-health and respond effectively to children and young people who are currently struggling. After completing her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, she moved to Exeter University Medical School in 2007, where she helped to recruit mental health researchers working across the lifespan in addition to developing a thriving Child Mental Health Research Group. She recently moved to the University of Cambridge.
Tamsin’s research covers the full range of psychopathology and agencies, practitioners and interventions that relate to the mental health of children and young people. Every interaction with a child presents an opportunity to intervene to improve their developmental trajectory. Her work has direct relevance to policy, commissioning and practice.
For example, papers relating mental health to exclusion were extensively referenced in the Timpson report (2019) and she leads the clinical rating for the national child mental health survey, which provided child mental health statistics for the NHS Plan.
Tamsin has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals (BMJ, Lancet Psychiatry, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry), and been awarded in excess of £25 million funding from various funders, including NIHR, MRC, Wellcome and ESRC. With over 16,000 times citations (H index 54), she has received numerous awards, including a CBE for services to Psychiatry (2019), Students Guild Best Post-Graduate Research Supervisor (2013) and Margaret Davenport Prize (oral presentation, Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2001). She provides research advice to Place2Be and is a board member of ACAMH.
Selected publications
Epidemiology
Hinze, V., Ford, T., Evans, R., Gjelsvik, B., & Crane, C. (2021). Exploring the relationship between pain and self-harm thoughts and behaviours in young people using network analysis.. Psychol Med, 1-10. doi:10.1017/S0033291721000295
Ford, T., John, A., & Gunnell, D. (2021). Mental health of children and young people during pandemic.. BMJ, 372, n614. doi:10.1136/bmj.n614
Newlove-Delgado, T., McManus, S., Sadler, K., Thandi, S., Vizard, T., Cartwright, C., . . . Mental Health of Children and Young People group. (2021). Child mental health in England before and during the COVID-19 lockdown.. Lancet Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30570-8
Wilkinson, K., Ball, S., Mitchell, S. B., Ukoumunne, O. C., O’Mahen, H. A., Tejerina-Arreal, M., . . . Ford, T. (2021). The longitudinal relationship between child emotional disorder and parental mental health in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health surveys 1999 and 2004. Journal of Affective Disorders, 288, 58-67. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2021.03.059
Russell, A. E., Ford, T., & Russell, G. (2019). Barriers and predictors of medication use for childhood ADHD: findings from a UK population-representative cohort.. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol, 54(12), 1555-1564. doi:10.1007/s00127-019-01720-y
Methodology
Stochl, J., Ford, T., Perez, J., & Jones, P. B. (2021). Modernising measurement in psychiatry: item banks and computerised adaptive testing.. Lancet Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00041-9
Anderson, J. K., Howarth, E., Vainre, M., Humphrey, A., Jones, P. B., & Ford, T. J. (2020). Advancing methodology for scoping reviews: recommendations arising from a scoping literature review (SLR) to inform transformation of children and adolescent mental health services.. BMC Medical Research Methodology. doi:10.1186/s12874-020-01127-3
Pierce, M., McManus, S., Jessop, C., John, A., Hotopf, M., Ford, T., . . . Abel, K. M. (2020). Says who? The significance of sampling in mental health surveys during COVID-19.. Lancet Psychiatry, 7(7), 567-568. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30237-6
Price, A., Janssens, A., Dunn-Morua, S., Eke, H., Asherson, P., Lloyd, T., & Ford, T. (2019). Seven steps to mapping health service provision: lessons learned from mapping services for adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the UK.. BMC Health Serv Res, 19(1), 468. doi:10.1186/s12913-019-4287-7
Eke, H., Janssens, A., Downs, J., Lynn, R. M., Ani, C., & Ford, T. (2019). How to measure the need for transition to adult services among young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): a comparison of surveillance versus case note review methods.. BMC Med Res Methodol, 19(1), 179. doi:10.1186/s12874-019-0820-y
Russell, G., Mandy, W., Elliott, D., White, R., Pittwood, T., & Ford, T. (2019). Selection bias on intellectual ability in autism research: a cross-sectional review and meta-analysis.. Mol Autism, 10, 9. doi:10.1186/s13229-019-0260-x
School mental health interface
Ford, T., Esposti, M. D., Crane, C., Taylor, L., Montero-Marín, J., Blakemore, S. -J., . . . Kuyken, W. (2021). The Role of Schools in Early Adolescents’ Mental Health: Findings From the MYRIAD Study.. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2021.02.016
Perry, R. C., Ford, T. J., O’Mahen, H., & Russell, A. E. (2021). Prioritising Targets for School-Based ADHD Interventions: A Delphi Survey. School Mental Health. doi:10.1007/s12310-020-09408-4
Wickersham, A., Dickson, H., Jones, R., Pritchard, M., Stewart, R., Ford, T., & Downs, J. (2021). Educational attainment trajectories among children and adolescents with depression, and the role of sociodemographic characteristics: longitudinal data-linkage study.. Br J Psychiatry, 218(3), 151-157. doi:10.1192/bjp.2020.160
Tejerina-Arreal, M., Parker, C., Paget, A., Henley, W., Logan, S., Emond, A., & Ford, T. (2020). Child and adolescent mental health trajectories in relation to exclusion from school from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.. Child Adolesc Ment Health, 25(4), 217-223. doi:10.1111/camh.12367
Finning, K., Ford, T., Moore, D. A., & Ukoumunne, O. C. (2020). Emotional disorder and absence from school: findings from the 2004 British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey.. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 29(2), 187-198. doi:10.1007/s00787-019-01342-4
Ford, T., Hayes, R., Byford, S., Edwards, V., Fletcher, M., Logan, S., . . . Ukoumunne, O. C. (2019). The effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management programme in primary school children: results of the STARS cluster randomised controlled trial.. Psychol Med, 49(5), 828-842. doi:10.1017/S0033291718001484
Mental health services
Price, A., Janssens, A., Newlove-Delgado, T., Eke, H., Paul, M., Sayal, K., . . . Ford, T. (2020). Mapping UK mental health services for adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: national survey with comparison of reporting between three stakeholder groups.. BJPsych Open, 6(4), e76. doi:10.1192/bjo.2020.65
Price, A., Ford, T., Janssens, A., Williams, A. J., & Newlove-Delgado, T. (2020). Regional analysis of UK primary care prescribing and adult service referrals for young people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.. BJPsych Open, 6(1), e7. doi:10.1192/bjo.2019.94
Ford, T., Richardson, J., Wilkinson, K., Smith, P., Berry, V., Barnhofer, T., . . . Kuyken, W. (2020). Could mindfulness-based cognitive therapy prevent a lifelong recurrent course of depression or anxiety by addressing key mechanisms of vulnerability in high-risk adolescents?. Br J Psychiatry, 216(4), 175-177. doi:10.1192/bjp.2019.183
Eke, H., Ford, T., Newlove-Delgado, T., Price, A., Young, S., Ani, C., . . . Janssens, A. (2020). Transition between child and adult services for young people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): findings from a British national surveillance study.. Br J Psychiatry, 217(5), 616-622. doi:10.1192/bjp.2019.131
Newlove-Delgado, T., Ford, T. J., Hamilton, W., Janssens, A., Stein, K., & Ukoumunne, O. C. (2019). Resumption of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder medication in early adulthood: findings from a UK primary care prescribing study.. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 28(12), 1589-1596. doi:10.1007/s00787-019-01325-5
Useful links
Full publication list and bibliometrics at Google Scholar
Follow on Twitter @Tamsin_J_Ford
Wikipedia Page
Cambridge Neuroscience
Research groups
Child and Adolescent Resilience and Mental Health>>