Career dedicated to mental health and suicide prevention
23 February
Ann John has built a remarkable career dedicated to improving mental health and preventing suicide. She is a professor in Public Health and Psychiatry at the Swansea University Medical School and has been a recipient of a Health and Care Research Wales personal award. She also chairs the National Advisory Group to the Welsh Government on the prevention of suicide and self-harm.
Starting as a doctor, she worked as a GP before moving into public health and clinical epidemiology. Her transition to research was influenced by patients she helped during her clinical work, whose life stories left an impression on her.
"I’ve often wondered how my career path from qualifying as a doctor through to being a GP and then doing public health brought me to suicide prevention research. It wasn’t planned.
“There’s no doubt that certain patients I saw over the years are almost imprinted in my memory.”
One of her significant research projects was the Self-Harm wEb Portal Cymru (SHeP-Cymru), funded by Health and Care Research Wales and completed in 2020. The project addressed the lack of comprehensive monitoring of self-harm outside of emergency department settings. Ann said:
“Self-harm is a significant public health issue, yet most people who self-harm are managed in general practice or seek no help at all, leaving them under-represented in research.”
The project developed an innovative web-based platform to safely and ethically involve Welsh people in self-harm research. Participants consented to link their contributions with routinely collected data in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. This design allowed the project to go beyond emergency department records, incorporating data from general practice, hospital admissions and direct input from people experiencing self-harm ideations.
The project also developed a methodology to assess the impact of media exposure on self-harming behaviour at both individual and group levels. Ann said:
“This approach creates the most comprehensive picture to date of individuals who self-harm, providing invaluable insights to inform future research and services.”
Her team at Swansea University is now building upon the database and gathering an understanding of suicidal behaviour through data, qualitative interviews and evidence collection.
Some of her other research which focused on media reporting during a suicide cluster in South Wales led to her meeting with journalists based in Wales and beyond to discuss responsible reporting.
She has also consulted on storylines depicting suicide on primetime television dramas such as Casualty, Coronation Street and Hollyoaks. Professor John worked with producers, writers and actors on the shows with several meetings being held on sets across the UK. Her input and expertise were extremely useful, .
Ann describes her career as a blend of clinical care and research with a shared goal: making a meaningful difference to people’s lives. She has been appointed as a Director of the new Health and Care Research Wales funded National Centre for Suicide and Self-harm Prevention where she will focus on transforming research into practical outcomes.
With the right support you can transform your passion for improving lives into impactful research. The Health and Care Research Wales Faculty offers funding, mentorship and resources to help you start or develop your career as a researcher and make a difference.