Contact
Biography
Dr Laura Asher studied medicine at Newcastle University, during which she completed an intercalated MSc Health Sciences. Following this she completed an NIHR academic foundation programme in Bristol, where she worked in general medicine and surgery, palliative care and academic psychiatry. In 2010 she started an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in public health at UCL. After completing an MSc in Epidemiology at LSHTM, she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD Fellowship in International Health also at LSHTM. The title of her PhD was "The development and evaluation of a community-based rehabilitation intervention for people with schizophrenia in Ethiopia." She also completed an International Diploma in Mental Health, Human Rights and Law at the Indian Law Society/WHO. Following award of her PhD in April 2017 and completion of specialist public health training in February 2018, she was appointed Clinical Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Nottingham in March 2018.
Research Summary
Dr Asher's main area of research is the design and evaluation of psychosocial interventions for people with psychosis in low and middle-income countries. Dr Asher has conducted qualitative work on… read more
Selected Publications
ASHER, L., FEKADU, A. and HANLON, C., 2018. Global mental health and schizophrenia: Curr Opin Psychiatry Curr Opin Psychiatry. ASHER, LAURA, BIRHANE, RAHEL, WEISS, HELEN A, MEDHIN, GIRMAY, SELAMU, MEDHIN, PATEL, VIKRAM, DE SILVA, MARY, HANLON, CHARLOTTE and FEKADU, ABEBAW, 2022. Community-based rehabilitation intervention for people with schizophrenia in Ethiopia (RISE): results of a 12-month cluster-randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. Global health. 10(4), e530-e542
ASHER L, FEKADU A and HANLON C, 2018. Global mental health and schizophrenia. Current opinion in psychiatry. 31(3), 193-199
Current Research
Dr Asher's main area of research is the design and evaluation of psychosocial interventions for people with psychosis in low and middle-income countries. Dr Asher has conducted qualitative work on various aspects of care for people with psychosis in Ethiopia including a collaboration between spiritual and biomedical care providers, the physical restraint of people with mental illness, involvement in decision making about care and experiences of recovery.
Current projects
Co-PI of the MRC/Newton funded Peer-led recovery groups for people with psychosis in South Africa (PRIZE): a randomized feasibility trial. 2019-2023
Co-I on the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Homeless People with severe mental illness in Africa (HOPE), led by Kings College London and Addis Ababa University. 2022- 2026
Co-I on the Wellcome Trust funded Strengthening CAre in collaboration with People with lived Experience of psychosis in Uganda (SCAPE-U). 2022-2025.
Co-I on the MRC/AHRC/ESRC funded Diversity, Research and Engagement for Adolescent Mental Health (DREAM), 2020-2022.
Co-I on the NIHR Global Health Research Group on the development and piloting of packages of care for the mental health of survivors of violence in South Asia, led by the Institute for Global Health at UCL.2018-2022
Previous projects
PI of the Wellcome funded Rehabilitation Intervention for People with Schizophrenia in Ethiopia (RISE) cluster randomised trial (http://www.mhinnovation.net/innovations/rehabilitation-intervention-people-schizophrenia-ethiopia-rise). The RISE trial was nested in the Programme for Improving mental healthcarE (PRIME), a five country DfID funded research consortium aiming to generate evidence on the integration of mental health into primary care (http://www.prime.uct.ac.za/).