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Prof. Swaran Singh - University of Warwick. Coventry, , UNITED KINGDOM

Prof. Swaran Singh

Professor of Social and Community Psychiatry, Warwick Medical School - Mental Health and Wellbeing | University of Warwick

Coventry, UNITED KINGDOM

Swaran Singh is an expert on early psychosis, somatisation, cultural and ethnic factors in mental illness, and mental health law.

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Areas of Expertise (6)

Mental Health Law

Global Mental Health

youth mental health

Early Intervention in Psychosis

Transitions in Healthcare

Ethnicity and Health

Selected Media Appearances (5)

The death of a Tunisian poet and the hidden story of Arab mental health

BBC News  online

2019-07-01

"It shows a large proportion of the population in the Middle East have very high levels of distress," says Swaran Singh, head of mental health and wellbeing at the University of Warwick. "By and large these are higher than western averages." Because of the stigma in reporting mental health problems the true figure could be even higher, he says...

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Child mental health: UK provision 'worse than in much of eastern Europe'

The Guardian  online

2019-04-29

“Our youth deserve better than what they currently receive. Despite being the sixth-richest country in the world, and with a health service that is said to be the ‘envy of the world’, when it comes to mental health provision for children and young people, the UK sadly lags behind other EU countries on many indicators, especially on the number of CAMHS psychiatrists”, said Prof Swaran Singh of Warwick University, referring to the NHS’s child and adolescent mental health services.

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Slovakia, Latvia and Estonia all have more hospital beds than Britain for young people battling serious mental health problems, EU research finds

Daily Mail  online

2019-04-29

Warwick Medical School’s Professor Swaran Singh told MailOnline: 'There is a sheer shortage of specialists in the UK which is a real worry.' He added: 'The services are battling each other rather than arguing for more resources all round...

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Assassination: When Dehli burned

BBC Radio 4  radio

2014-10-31

Professor Swaran Singh, Head, Division of Mental Health and Wellbeing at Warwick University and a Consultant Psychiatrist, was a trainee surgeon in Delhi in 1984. He witnessed first-hand the riots, the killings and the anguish of those who survived. He was moved to work with the children who had lost either one or both parents - and set up a play area for them where he could also carry out medical checks in the Tilak Vihar area of Delhi.

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Frequent school moves can increase the risk of psychotic symptoms in early adolescence

Science Daily  online

2014-02-18

Professor Swaran Singh, who led the study, explained, "Changing schools can be very stressful for students. Our study found that the process of moving schools may itself increase the risk of psychotic symptoms -- independent of other factors. But additionally, being involved in bullying, sometimes as a consequence of repeated school moves, may exacerbate risk for the individual"...

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Selected Event Appearances (1)

Ethnicity and detention: determinants of ethnic differences in the process and outcome of mental health act (MHA) assessments.

2nd Conference of the Schizophrenia-International-Research-Society (SIRS)  Florence, Italy

2010-04-10

Selected Articles (5)

Outcomes of young people who reach the transition boundary of child and adolescent mental health services: a systematic review


European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

2019 When young people reach the upper age limit of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), care should be transferred to an adult mental health service (AMHS) if they require ongoing support. However, many young people experience a significant disruption of their care during this transition, whilst others may fail to transition at all. Currently, there is no systematic appraisal of the international evidence regarding the outcomes of young people after transition. A systematic review was conducted which aimed to synthesise and review the existing research regarding outcomes after transition. We searched six databases from their inception until December 2017 for research relating to either the mental health or service use outcomes of young people after reaching their CAMHS age boundary. Results were synthesised narratively. The initial searches identified 18,287 papers, of which 213 were screened on full text. 13 papers were included in the review, representing 10 cohorts of young people who crossed the transition age boundary. No studies contained extractable data on mental health outcomes following transition, and therefore, this review focused only on service use outcomes. Results showed a quarter of young people transitioned to AMHS, with the other young people experiencing varied outcomes after leaving CAMHS and multiple transitions during this time. This review provides evidence for the varying service use outcomes of young people after reaching the upper age limit of CAMHS. However, longitudinal research into long-term outcomes is lacking, in addition to research regarding the mental health and functioning outcomes of young people following transition.

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Insulin resistance and obesity, and their association with depression in relatively young people: findings from a large UK birth cohort


Psychological Medicine

2019 Depression frequently co-occurs with disorders of glucose and insulin homeostasis (DGIH) and obesity. Low-grade systemic inflammation and lifestyle factors in childhood may predispose to DGIH, obesity and depression. We aim to investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations among DGIH, obesity and depression, and to examine the effect of demographics, lifestyle factors and antecedent low-grade inflammation on such associations in young people.

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Transition as a topic in psychiatry training throughout Europe: trainees’ perspectives


European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

2019 The majority of adolescents with mental health problems do not experience continuity of care when they reach the transition boundary of their child and adolescent mental health service. One of the obstacles for a smooth transition to adult mental health services concerns the lack of training for health-care professionals involved in the transition process. This study aims to seek psychiatric trainees’ opinions regarding training on transition and the knowledge and skills required for managing transition. A survey was distributed to trainees residing in European countries. Trainees from 36 countries completed the questionnaire, of which 63% reported that they came into contact with youth and young adults (16–26 years) during their clinical practice. Twenty-seven percent of trainees stated they have good to very good knowledge about the transition process. Theoretical training about transition was reported in only 17% of the countries, and practical training in 28% of the countries. Ninety-four percent of trainees indicated that further training about transition is necessary. The content of subsequent transition-related training can be guided by the findings of the MILESTONE project.

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How to serve our ethnic minority communities better


The Lancet Psychiatry

2019 On Jan 9, 2017, Theresa May, the British Prime Minister, gave a speech about “the burning injustice of mental illness”, mentioning “injustices in the way black people with mental ill health in particular are treated”, and promising that politicians would “take action to put things right.”1 In response to three decades of UK research on ethnic differences in mental health, such emotionally charged rhetoric has been commonplace, but has rarely produced meaningful change. Mental health care in ethnic minorities is complex, and needs dispassionate and objective scrutiny of evidence and its limitations, with careful disentanglement of the interactions between ethnicity, culture, community histories, legacies of racism, and the labyrinthine service structures that people with mental illness and their families must navigate to get appropriate help. In The Lancet Psychiatry, Phoebe Barnett and colleagues2 present findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis of ethnicity and legal detention of people with mental illness, an impressive attempt at providing just such scrutiny. Although the findings are not strikingly different from what is known, this comprehensive paper is a timely reminder of how far we are from fully understanding the problem—let alone solving it—and why the stated political intention to put things right might be easy to promise but hard to deliver.

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Training of adult psychiatrists and child and adolescent psychiatrists in europe: a systematic review of training characteristics and transition from child/adolescent to adult mental health services


BMC Medical Education

2019 Profound clinical, conceptual and ideological differences between child and adult mental health service models contribute to transition-related discontinuity of care. Many of these may be related to psychiatry training.

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