Body & Soul Charity
Mental Health Researcher
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Reporting To:
Co-Director of Body & Soul
Duration:
Approximately 45 days in total over 2 years.
Salary:
£400–£550 per day depending on experience and skills. The exact daily rate and allocation of days will be agreed with the successful candidate to reflect their experience, preferred approach, and project needs.
Context to the Role:
Body & Soul Charity is an award-winning suicide prevention charity working with marginalized communities who have been historically and systemically let down by traditional mental and physical healthcare systems. Our pioneering suicide prevention approach is grounded in decades of research, evidence, and lived experience.
This research project sits within our You Are Not Alone Suicide Prevention Programme, which is for young adults, 16-35 year olds, who are struggling with suicidality and self-harm.
We are embarking on a 2-year research project funded by Prudence Trust to investigate; What is the most effective way to sustain young people’s mental health outcomes and prevent re-entry into crisis following therapeutic interventions? This project speaks to a significant gap in the academic literature, and the findings will have important clinical implications. We have already conducted a pilot study with 30 participants which has indicated promising results.
Purpose of the Role:
To play a leading role in Body & Soul’s funded 2-year research study on how to sustain young people’s mental health outcomes and prevent re-entry into crisis.
You will be joining a multi-disciplinary team who hold expertise in suicidality, mental health, trauma, marginalized communities, equitable healthcare, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and working with young people.
You will be working with a longitudinal dataset tracking young people through and beyond therapeutic intervention, combining validated clinical outcome measures, service-use data, and lived-experience narratives. You will hold expertise in researching mental health and working with quantitative and qualitative longitudinal data, and be able to lead on the study design, data collection protocol, data analysis, data interpretation, and academic writing of the paper. As the lead researcher, you will support us to supervise the work of research interns who will support with participant recruitment, data collection, and data entry.
Deliverables:
Deliverables will be agreed with the Co-Director and Research Advisor and refined as the project develops. They are expected to include:
- A study design and data collection protocol for the 2-year study.
- A research ethics submission and supporting documentation.
- Cleaned, documented datasets and analysis code, prepared for reproducibility.
- Analysis and interpretation of the study findings.
- A co-authored academic paper suitable for publication, and materials for presenting the work at conferences and to collaborators within the field.
- Periodic progress updates to the team.
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Knowledge, Skills and Experience:
- A PhD (completed or near completion) in psychology, public health, mental health research, or a related quantitative social science discipline. Demonstrable experience independently leading empirical mental health research, from study design through to publication.
- Note – we are also very open to non-academic researchers who have the required skills and experience, and could partner with an academic supervisor for the role.
- Expertise in longitudinal data collection and analysis, including familiarity with the methodological challenges of participant retention and missing data over time.
- Strong quantitative skills and proficiency in at least one statistical package (e.g. R or Python); strong qualitative analysis skills and experience with mixed-methods designs.
- A strong command of the relevant mental health research literature, and the ability to identify gaps and frame research questions that would make novel, publishable contributions.
- Experience conducting research with vulnerable or marginalized populations, and a working understanding of the ethical and safeguarding considerations this involves.
- Familiarity with research ethics approval processes and data protection (GDPR) requirements.
- A track record of academic writing and publication, or clear evidence of the ability to produce publishable work.
- Experience working within or collaborating with service delivery organisations, ideally in the charity sector, and experience working with organisational databases.
- Experience supervising or mentoring junior researchers (desirable).
- Knowledge of suicidality, self-harm, trauma, or DBT-informed approaches (desirable, not essential — the wider team holds this expertise).
Personal Qualities and Attributes
- Responsible and committed: Holds their responsibility for this project with care and commitment, maintaining awareness that it is a project with and for a vulnerable and complex population.
- Relational: Willing to work collaboratively and relationally with a multi-disciplinary team.
- Exceptional organisation and time-management: Manages the leadership of a long-term project, keeping to timelines and coordinating competing demands across the two years.
- Clear communication: Communicates clearly and sensitively with colleagues, research participants, and in academic writing.
- Humility: Openness and curiosity to learn from those speaking from different disciplines to you.
- Proactive: Takes initiative to solve problems in creative and collaborative ways.
- Measured: Responds calmly and competently in high-pressure situations.
- Awareness of power, positionality, and privilege: Committed to working in an anti-racist environment which holds awareness of systemic power structures.
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Unique Opportunity
- To work with a rich longitudinal dataset tracking young people through and beyond therapeutic intervention, combining validated clinical outcome measures, service-use data, and lived-experience narratives, a combination rarely available in suicide-prevention research.
- To conduct research with and for young people from marginalized communities who are often not represented in the wider research field.
- To co-author the research and share it at global mental health conferences.
- To learn from and work alongside experts in the mental health field.
Additional Requirements
- Commitment to the 2-year research project, and working collaboratively to allocate days throughout the year to reflect the varying demands of the project.
- Commitment to the values, aims, and ethos of Body & Soul.
How to Apply
To apply, please submit the following by 2 August 2026 to katie@bodyandsoulcharity.org. We are welcoming of pre-application conversations, so please reach out if you would like to arrange this too.
- A CV (maximum three pages).
- A cover letter (maximum one page) describing your relevant research experience, your interest in this project, and your fit with Body & Soul's values.
- A writing sample (a published paper, working paper, or thesis chapter) that demonstrates your research and academic writing.
- A short note on your availability and how you would structure your days across the two years.
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