Welcome to Futuremakers, from the University of Oxford, where our academics debate key issues for the future of society.
Season Four: Brain and Mental Health
Season Three: The History of Pandemics
Season Two: Climate Change
Season One: Artificial Intelligence
Special Episode: A brief history of Quantum Computing
S4 Ep9: Evidence-based strategies for suicide and self-harm prevention with Professor Seena Fazel
Content warning:
Please be aware that this episode refers to topics such as suicide, suicidal ideations, methods of suicide and overdose.
In Episode 9 of the series, Professor Belinda Lennox sits down with Professor Seena Fazel (https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/team/seena-fazel), Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry and Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist.
Here, they discuss Oxford’s long history of suicide research, and Professor Fazel’s work identifying high-risk populations, particularly those who have been through the criminal justice system, and what clinicians can do to improve assessment and treatment of patients.
They also look at the evidence for restricting access to means, and how examining population-level data can help researchers better understand the causes of suicide.
14 Sept 2023
S4 Ep8: Suicide prevention and mental health advocacy with Ben West
Content warning:
Please be aware that this episode refers to topics such as suicide, suicidal ideations and depression.
In the eighth episode of the series, Professor Belinda Lennox speaks to Ben West, mental health campaigner, best-selling author and social media influencer.
In 2018, Ben unexpectedly lost his brother to suicide. In this conversation, Ben shares his journey as a campaigner for mental health awareness, suicide prevention, and his work to fundamentally change how we approach mental health, especially in schools.
Ben released his first book entitled 'This Book Could Save Your Life – Breaking the Silence Around the Mental Health Emergency' in 2022, in which he shares his experiences to date, offering everything he’s discovered along the way, from dealing with grief, to how you can support those in your life experiencing poor mental health.
8 Sept 2023
S4 Ep7: Supporting the mental health of young people with Cynthia Germanotta, Dr Claudia-Santi F. Fernandes and Professor Mina Fazel
In the seventh episode of the series, Professor Lennox (https://oxford.shorthandstories.com/brain-belinda-lennox/index.html) is joined by Cynthia Germanotta (https://bornthisway.foundation/team/cynthia-germanotta/) and Dr Claudia-Santi F. Fernandes (https://bornthisway.foundation/team/claudia-santi-f-fernandes/) from Born This Way Foundation (https://bornthisway.foundation/), and Professor Mina Fazel (https://oxford.shorthandstories.com/brain-professor-mina-fazel/) from Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry, to examine how to best help support the mental health of young people.
Cynthia Germanotta is President and Co-Founder of Born This Way Foundation and Global Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health at the World Health Organization. Cynthia co-founded Born This Way Foundation with her daughter, Lady Gaga, in 2012. Since then, the Foundation has connected with tens of thousands of young people across the world, launched innovative youth-focused programming, and conducted cutting edge research.
Dr. Claudia-Santi F. Fernandes is Born This Way Foundation’s Director of Research and Evaluation. Dr. Fernandes spearheads the Foundation’s research strategy, providing scientific expertise in the design and implementation of youth-led initiatives and impactful programming. Dr. Fernandes also holds a faculty appointment as an assistant clinical professor of the Child Study Center and in Biomedical Informatics and Data Science at the Yale School of Medicine.
Mina Fazel is Professor of Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. Her journey into the field of child and adolescent psychiatry was driven by her interest in understanding the impact of environmental factors on mental health. Since 2019, her team has been running the OxWell Student Survey (https://oxwell.org/), with over 40,000 children taking part in the 2023 version of the survey, it provides invaluable information for tailoring mental health provision to meet individual needs.
In this episode, they discuss some of Born This Way Foundation’s activities, including the Be There Certificate (https://betherecertificate.org/) and #BeKind365 (https://bekind365.world/), how school-based interventions can help improve the mental health of young people, and the importance of kindness.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
16 ratings
Contact Futuremakers
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
