Dr Maria Livanou
Contact
- Email: m.livanou@kingston.ac.uk
- Location: Penrhyn Road
- Faculty: Faculty of Business and Social Sciences
- School: School of Law, Social and Behavioural Sciences
- Department: Department of Psychology
About
My expertise lies in (forensic) applied health research and has primarily focused on young people moving from adolescent forensic services to adult-oriented settings including adult forensic inpatient care and community accommodations. My PhD Thesis was titled Transition of care in young offenders with ongoing mental health problems across England. This research was funded by NIHR CLAHRC West Midlands and was adopted as a NIHR Portfolio study. This mixed-methods and multicentre study explored prospectively the transition experiences of young people, parents/carers, and key workers across all nationally funded adolescent medium secure services in England. Delayed transitions, lack of emotional and developmental readiness, and lack of specialist care for young people with neurodiversity have been clearly identified as transition barriers and challenges. Transitions have been described as highly problematic in the UK and young people in forensic services present with multiple and complex needs which need to be adequately addressed during periods of transition. This group presents with high-risk and high-vulnerability and necessitates person-centred care. Therefore, we need to bridge the gap between child and adult services to improve transition and mental health outcomes. I am particularly interested in mental health policy, transition policy and practice, youth mental health, autism, neurodiversity and transitional care, emerging personality disorders, self-harming and eating disorders. I have collaborated with numerous NHS forensic services to produce evidence-based research and I have been involved in the development of national transition guidelines to revamp current policy and processes. In the past, I have worked in several projects in forensic experimental psychology exploring lie detection, interrogation techniques, and false confessions.
Academic responsibilities
Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology & Course Leader BSc in Forensic Psychology
Qualifications
- 2015-2018 PhD in Medicine, (Forensic Psychology-Psychiatry), Warwick Medical School
- 2017-2019 MSc in Psychodynamics of Human Development, Birkbeck University of London with British Psychotherapy Foundation
- 2011-2014 BA Hon (summa cum laude) in Forensic Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
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