The 4S Study:

Support Systems for Self-harm and Suicide

Our Team

University of Bristol

Judi Kidger is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health and one of the three Principal Investigators on the 4S project. She has many years of experience exploring the determinants of poor mental health and self-harm in young people and evaluating interventions in these areas. Her recent work includes a project co-produced with Samaritans exploring the core components of their Step by Step postvention service for schools and youth organisations. 

Find out more about Judi’s work here or email Judi at judi.kidger@bristol.ac.uk

Lucy Biddle is an Associate Professor in Qualitative Mental Health Research and one of the three Principal Investigators on the 4S project. She has longstanding research interests in suicide prevention, young people’s mental health and the impact of the online environment on mental health. Lucy specialises in qualitative research and recently worked with Judi Kidger to explore Samaritans’ Step-by-Step postvention service for schools and youth organisations. 

Find out more about Lucy’s work here or email Lucy at lucy.biddle@bristol.ac.uk

Emily Widnall is a Senior Research Associate in Public Health with a particular interest in young people’s mental health and well-being, the impacts of the school environment on mental health and school-based interventions. In this project, Emily will be leading the scoping review of existing self-harm and suicide resources available to education and youth organisations as well as coordinating the public involvement stakeholder groups. 

Find out more about Emily’s work here or email Emily at emily.widnall@bristol.ac.uk

University of Exeter

Abby Russell is a Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Mental Health and NIHR Advanced Fellow. She is one of the three Principal Investigators on the 4S project, and is based within the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Research Collaboration (ChYMe) at the University of Exeter. Abby’s work focuses on how education settings can support young people’s mental health, although she also has experience with studying the causes and consequences of mental health and neurodevelopmental challenges. In terms of self-harm, Abby has previously conducted research exploring barriers to doing more in secondary schools to prevent self-harm, as well as investigating whether there are biological pathways that link experiences of early adversity with adolescent self-harm.

Find out more about Abby’s work here or email Abby at a.e.russell@exeter.ac.uk

Sarah Olin is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Sarah is particularly interested in research looking at the how social support can improve wellbeing and mental health. Sarah’s PhD looked at attitudes towards people who self-harm and experiences of disclosure and help-seeking. In this project, she was involved in the surveys and secondary analysis of existing literature on who young people talk to about self-harm.

Sarah finished her work on this project in February 2024. 

Find out more about Sarah’s work here.

Franki Mathews is a Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Franki is particularly interested working in research focused on improving the experiences of young people affected by poor mental health. Franki previously worked on a self-harm and suicide project which surveyed schools in the South West of England and Wales to understand more about the support and response for students who self harm or are at risk of suicide. In this project, Franki was involved in the schools survey and secondary analysis of existing literature on the transparency of intervention and prevention programmes for young people on self harm and suicide.  

Franki finished working on this project in February 2024

Find out more about Franki’s work here.

Newcastle University

Sally O’Keeffe is a Mental Health Fellow at Newcastle University and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for the North East and North Cumbria. Sally has a particular interest in youth mental health and interventions for self-harm in young people. This includes work on the Supporting Adolescents with Self-Harm (SASH) study, which is testing therapeutic assessment and solution focused follow ups, as an intervention to improve outcomes for young people presenting to A&E with self-harm. In the 4S project, Sally is involved in the survey which is taking place in schools and youth organisations.  

Find out more about Sally’s work here or email Sally at sally.o’keeffe@newcastle.ac.uk

Additional collaborators