VOICES LOUISE ARSENEAULT Thinking ahead


Professor Louise Arseneault, the ESRC’s first mental health champion, explains why a cross- disciplinary approach to mental health is important, and why, with an ageing population, it is important to think about mental health when young, as choices made then shape later life


Quebec. Then a postdoctoral researcher, she is now professor of Developmental Psychology. And she has a new challenge, this time from ESRC. She is our first Mental Health Champion, charged with making mental health central to the ESRC’s vision, strategies and funding decisions.


L “ Nobody had realised the


profound impact being bullied in childhood could have


Arseneault sees the post as part of a wider trend


within society to take mental health issues more seriously. She says: “I am optimistic, because five years ago, an appointment like this one would have been far more challenging, and it was nearly impossible to raise awareness about mental health issues. Now there is more willingness to see mental illness as common, and as part of everyday life. I work with clinicians, charities and people in government in a way I never used to before. We need more work to tackle the stigma attached


”


The experience of being bullied at school in childhood affected people’s mental and physical health, and their socio-economic outlook, all the way into middle age


ouise Arseneault arrived at what is now the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London nearly 20 years ago, from her native


to considering mental health problems. I hope research will continue to contribute to this change.” She wants her new position to provide


“intellectual input to shape the mental health research portfolio at the ESRC.” This will involve “advice on funding more mental health research.” As champion for mental health in a social science organisation, she sees an opportunity to go beyond the “genes and biology” approach to mental health, and to emphasise the social and environmental aspects of mental health problems. And while the appointment is only for three years, she regards it as an opportunity to catalyse long-lasting change in research council thinking on mental health issues. Arseneault sees the potential for more ESRC


projects on mental health, but is opposed to the subject becoming another intellectual silo. Instead, she would like other projects in the economic and social sciences to include mental health in their thinking. “I am keen to increase the scientific community’s awareness of mental health in planning their research,” she says. Nor does Arseneault confine her interest to


the ESRC’s subject area. There is every reason, she thinks, why research councils devoted to the physical sciences and engineering could develop better tools to assess the symptoms of mental wellness and illness, or to help people with mental health problems. She says: “I’d like us to step out of our comfort zones and work with other disciplines and other funders, to create new cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary projects on mental health.” Budgets under pressure But Arseneault admits that she may have accepted this new project at a tricky time. Budgets for the National Health Service, social care and mental health research are under pressure, making it more difficult to support the big expansion in spending that she might like to see. “More money will be needed to tackle mental health problems in society today,” she concedes. But on a positive note, she sees that government is more interested than in the past in evidence-based strategies. For her, supporting mental health services, and developing prevention strategies, are cost-effective approaches to improving society. Allied to this issue is our growing awareness of the ageing population, and its sweeping social and economic impact. Arseneault sees this concern as a deep one that can only be solved over decades. As she says: “It is important to consider mental health when we think about the years of health and wealth


24 SOCIETY NOW SUMMER 2017


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