I work as Policy and Advocacy Adviser at the Wellcome Trust, focusing on mental health. Prior to this I worked in the Policy and Campaigns Team at Mind.

My Fellowship focuses on understanding Japan's approach to suicide prevention. I am particularly looking to find out more about how Japan has involved departments across government, as well as other organisations such as schools, universities and employers, in reducing suicides.

I became interested in this because as well as my work in mental health, for many years I've been volunteering for a listening service focused on reducing the number of people who die by suicide. One common theme in both my volunteering and my work is that our mental health is affected by so many factors and effectively supporting mental health is about much more than health policies. There needs to be action across different government departments, particularly those with responsibility for economic and social policies, to try to effectively reduce suicides.