Francesca is a Research Fellow within the NIHR ARC Wessex Mental Health Hub, based in the School of Health Sciences. In her current role, she is working on a mixed-methods project to identify knowledge gaps among paramedics in managing patients presenting mental health issues. This work aims to enhance the quality of mental health care provided to patients, improve patient experiences, and offer better support for paramedics.
Francesca has worked as a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Psychology, facilitating seminar delivery, demonstrating, marking and completing administrative work.
Francesca holds a BSc in Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology (cum laude) and a MSc in Clinical Psychology (cum laude), both from the University of Padova (Italy). She is working as a Research Fellow within the NIHR ARC Wessex Mental Health Hub, based in the School of Health Sciences, and has recently completed her PhD at the Centre for Innovation in Mental Health, School of Psychology (University of Southampton), funded by the ESRC South Coast DTP and focused on the risk posed by parental anxiety to their children and on strategies to promote the mental health of children with anxious parents. Building on her previous research exploring the needs of parents with mental illness and how services can support their children’s mental health, Francesca’s work continues to focus on understanding the needs of individuals experiencing mental health difficulties and identifying evidence-based strategies to improve care delivery.
Francesca also qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in Italy in 2021.
Francesca is also collaborating with colleagues from the Faculty of Medicine and Social Sciences (University of Southampton) on a research project funded by the Resilient Society Interdisciplinary Grant and focused on resilience among forcibly displaced mothers and has recently completed a research internship within Southampton City Council, piloting a programme to improve primary school children’s activity levels and wellbeing in class.
Francesca uses both quantitative and qualitative methods in her research and poses great value in the involvement of experts by experience (via Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) throughout the research process.