SSM ECRs featuring… Dr Aideen Maguire!
Dr Aideen Maguire is a Psychiatric Epidemiologist and Lecturer at the Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast.
Dr Aideen Maguire
Queen’s University Belfast
Lecturer Social Epidemiology
SSM member since: 2014
SSM participation: 2019 ASM, 2020 ASM, ECR workshop 2020
Topics of interest: mental health; administrative data; psychiatric epidemiology
What inspired you to pursue a career in public health?
I sort of fell into Public Health. As a Psychologist by training, I knew I wanted to do research into understanding mental ill-health with a view to improving care and service provision. The more I examined our understanding of mental ill-health, the more I realised we know very little about what actually causes it. So I took a step back to basic Epidemiology and thought “ok let’s start with identifying who in the population suffers from mental ill-health”? Even that was difficult. There is no UK population-wide register of everyone diagnosed with a mental health disorder let alone those without a diagnosis. That’s how I moved into utilising population-wide administrative data to examine population mental health and have been in the Public Health sphere since.
What excites you about working in research now?
I really like problem solving and working towards evidence-informed practice. I work with linked administrative data, making use of existing data to better understand population mental health. The world of linked administrative data is really expanding with large UKRI investments like Administrative Data Research (ADR), including my own Administrative Data Research Centre –Northern Ireland (ADRC-NI), and Health Data Research UK (HDRUK). As this expands, I am excited as to how we can more quickly and more effectively answer research questions to ensure the best quality of care for our population.
What area of social medicine/public health are you interested in?
I am a Psychiatric Epidemiologist, which means that I examine the causes of, and outcomes from, mental ill-health at the population level.
Can you tell us a bit about a project you’re working on now?
I am working on so many exciting projects at the moment but one of the biggest is in partnership with the Northern Ireland Department of Health exploring the mental health of children known to social services, both whilst they are in the care of social services and after leaving care. This project links over 30 years’ worth of social services data to health data and mortality records in the UK’s largest longitudinal study of the mental health of children known to social services.
What do you hope this will lead to?
Already results from this project have been used to inform the 2021 Strategy On ‘Caring’ For Children & Young People in Northern Ireland: A Life Deserved. I hope that further results from this programme of work will improve our understanding of the impact of adverse childhood experiences and the social care system on mental ill-health and aid in the effective targeting of interventions.
Bonus question from SSM member Mirjam Allik: If you were not in academia and doing health research, who would you be? What is your ideal alternative career?
If I weren’t in this job I think I would still be working in the field of mental health, possibly working as a Clinical Psychologist. But if I could have any job in the world I would restore stained glass windows, granted it’s a little unrelated to Public Health, but why not!
To keep up to date with Aideen, follow her on Twitter @Aideen_QUB or get in touch via email.
SSM ECR features is a blog series that celebrates early career researchers. Each month we meet a member we admire, learn more about their work and find out what and who inspires them. To find out more visit socsocmed.org.uk/blog or email ecr.ssm@gmail.com.