Staff profile

Dr Veenu Gupta is Assistant Professor in Lived Experience Research, in the Department of Psychology within the Institute for Medical Humanities. Veenu has lived experience of psychosis herself and engages in work that integrates her own lived experiences into research to support clinical services to better meet the needs of service users. Veenu completed her BSc in Psychology in 2012 from Lancaster University, and then trained as a Mental Health Nurse and qualified in 2016, from City University of London before completing her MSc In Psychological Research Methods in 2018, University of Leicester. She has worked as a Service user Advisor to the National Clinical Audit of Psychosis from 2018-2025 to drive initiatives in early intervention in psychosis services. She then went on to do her PhD, exploring the identities of those in lived experience roles in mental health research from the University of Liverpool 2019-2023. She is supporting research at ReCoCo as part of the WellSpring Site in Durham's Discovery Research Platform.

Current projects

• Researcher at Recovery College Collective Newcastle (ReCoCo: 2024-2027) funded by Wellcome Trust as part of the Durham Institute for Medical Humanities Platform.
• Collaborator on the SUNRISE study (Searching, Unpacking and Naming Research Into Subjective Experiences Research in Mental Health: Wellcome funded commission 2024-2025 collaborating with McPin Foundation, Dr Alison Faulkner, Prof Ben-Alderson-Day & Prof Angela Woods).
• Service user advisor to the National Clinical Audit of Psychosis (HQIP funded commission: 2018-2025).
• Service user advisor to the EXTEND Early Intervention in Psychosis study (NIHR funded: 2022-2025: Pennine Care NHS and Oxford Psychiatry PIs Prof Paul French & Prof Belinda Lennox).
• Collaborator on the PUMA Platform development trial study (Psychosis treatments Using Multi-Arm multi-stage trials: 2024-2026 Wellcome funded Oxford Psychiatry: PI Prof Belinda Lennox).
• Patient and Public Involvement Lead SAFE PATHS study (South Asians and their Families Experiences of Psychosis Pathways to Access Treatment and Healthcare Services: 2024-2025 NIHR Manchester University: PI Dr Laoise Renwick).
• Patient and Public Involvement Lead PREVENT Diabetes study (2024-2026: NIHR University College London: PI Dr Juan Carlos Bazo Alvarez).
• Collaborator for Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC: 2024-2025: University of Liverpool: PI Prof Rhiannon Corcoran).

Blogs

The Teal Tiger

The main purpose of The Teal Tiger blog is to raise awareness of mental health issues and to reduce the stigma surrounding them through sharing deeply personal accounts to show recovery or management of one’s mental illness is possible to give others experiencing similar issues the knowledge that things can get better. It also reflects on the experience of being a researcher with lived experience engaging in lived experience research and the negotiation of personal and professional identities required to navigate these roles. The blog adopts different narratives and uses creative license from which to reflect on and better understand these experiences, giving greater control over the experience of psychosis and its management.

A book review on Voices in Psychosis

A book review by Veenu Gupta of 'Voices in Psychosis' Edited by Angela Woods, Ben Alderson-Day & Charles Fernyhough. Their open access book the review is about can be found here: Voices in Psychosis

The challenges faced by those in lived experience roles

A blog for the National Survivor User Network articulating the many challenges of those in lived experiences roles and how to navigate them.

Seminar on Lived Experience Research for the Institute of Mental Health University of Birmingham

Gupta, V (2024) Exploring the identity and support needs of lived experience researchers and providers. Seminar Series. Institute for Mental Health. University of Birmingham. 18th March 2024. Birmingham. Link to recording Passcode: dQJ&8dU=

The Mental Elf Podcast

Veenu contributed to a Mental Elf podcast on the evolution of the lived experience workforce ahead of the annual scientific NHS Scotland research meeting on mental health. The title of the talk is Supporting and Empowering the Lived Experience Workforce: Reflecting on the Past, Being Present and Looking to the Future.

The link to the podcast can be found here: Mental Elf Podcast

PhD Thesis

Gupta, V (2023) An Exploration of Emerging Identities in Mental Health, Education and Research. PhD Thesis. Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. University of Liverpool. https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3171370

Supervisors: Dr Catrin Eames, Alison Bryant, Dr Jennie Day, Dr Beth Greenhill, Dr Laura Golding and Dr Peter Fisher.

• Lived experience research.
• Epistemic Injustice
• Identity
• Reflexivity
• Participatory approaches
• Supervision
• Psychosis

Journal Article

• Nicholls, D., Budd, J., Nunn, P., French, P., Smith, J., Gupta, V., Holdship, J., & Quirk, A. (online). Investigating inequalities in patient outcomes for first-episode psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2024.132
• Rickett, M. C., Kingstone, T., Gupta, V., Shiers, D., French, P., Lennox, B., Crawford, M., Penington, E., Hedges, A., Ward, J., Williams, R., Bateman, P., & Chew-Graham, C. A. (in press). Collaboration across the primary/specialist interface in early intervention in psychosis services: a qualitative study. British Journal of General Practice, Article BJGP.2023.0558. https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2023.0558
• Gupta, V., Eames, C., Bryant, A., Greenhill, B., Golding, L., Day, J., & Fisher, P. (2024). Identifying the priorities for supervision by lived experience researchers: a Q sort study. Research Involvement and Engagement, 10(1), Article 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-024-00596-w