On Wednesday Kirsty had the great opportunity to present alongside Dr Allan Johnston at the UKSI Mental Health in Elite Sport conference on her PhD project on ADHD and athletes, in collaboration with both the UKSI and ECB disability cricket.
Since Kirsty only started the PhD in September, the project is still at an early stage, so the presentation covered the background to the project, including Kirsty’s lived experience of having ADHD and autism, and how this has contributed to the formation of the project.
Kirsty and Allan discussed the benefits of a collaborative PhD from both the PhD perspective and UKSI perspective, and Allan talked everyone through his role as a sports psychiatrist in relation to working with athletes with ADHD. Finally they shared their plans for the project, and what the practical applications would be for improving the care of ADHD in athlete populations for both performance and mental health. If you’d like to read about the project, and blog posts Kirsty has previously written on the topic check out this link (Neurodiversity | The Sprint Project).
The UKSI provides support to Paralympic and Olympic athletes across the UK. Its services cover everything from performance nutrition, sports medicine, performance analysis to sport psychology (https://uksportsinstitute.co.uk/services/).
There were around 130 attendees at the conference which included sports psychologists and lifestyle advisors from the different GB sports teams, sports psychiatrists, external practitioners that work with UKSI athletes as well as other organisations that provide mental health support to athletes.
The program included talks from the two other collaborative PhDs with the UKSI on different aspects of mental health in elite athletes, a panel with practitioners on their experience with working with athletes, doing case formulations in practice and hearing from Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Kirsty and Mary had a great day, and came back with lots of thoughts and ideas! Thank you to the UKSI for putting on such an inspiring and fantastic day!
Relevant links:
SPRINT project blog post Neurodiversity | The Sprint Project
NHS article PHD student talks Neurodiversity diagnosis as an adult | News | Birmingham Women's and Children's
BMJ YouTube video Known unknowns - exploring uncertainty in medicine | The BMJ
Written by Kirsty Brown
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