Embracing Complexity

Embracing Complexity

Embracing Complexity is one of the 4 research challenges that emerged from our priority setting work in 2019Below you can find more detail about what research challenge sought to address, and examples of projects Emerging Minds has supported to achieve this.

How can we best meet the needs of children and young people who have intersecting needs and face complex situations in order to promote good mental health, prevent the development of mental health problems and tackle mental health problems early?

Our stakeholder engagement work particularly highlighted the importance of addressing the needs of children and young people who:

  • Are not in school or at risk of being excluded from school
  • Have neurodevelopmental conditions
  • Have special educational needs
  • Experience communication challenges
  • Experience physical health conditions
  • Have behavioural difficulties

Artwork credit: Tom Bailey

Projects seeking to address this research challenge include:

Language and communication needs in mental health

Special Interest Research Group led by Dr Hannah Hobson, University of York

Embracing complexity in neurodevelopment research

Cross-sector placement hosted by the Embracing Complexity Coalition and Autistica and led by Dr Suzi Sapiets, Universities of Kent and Warwick

You can find out more about our other research challenges and projects we have supported in relation to them via our research challenges page.

We have compiled a dedicated report (May 2023) on how we drew together our research challenges, the progress made towards them, and our perspective on what remains to be done. We would love you to take a look!