UCL PALS academic wins prestigious award for inclusive research innovation A research team involving Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou (from UCL PALS) has been awarded the 2025 Lionel Hersov Memorial Award from the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH).

we did a good good thing @jopavlopoulou.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk @uclpals.bsky.social @uclbrainscience.bsky.social
www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...

NEW PAPER OUT- share and let us know if this resonates www.nature.com/articles/s41...

paper in progress

wonderful team time with visitors from Singapore of Institute of Health

Deep dive today into the personal accounts of #ADHD and #autistic young people who are not attending school. This work is part of the @grrand-team.bsky.social generously funded by Barts Charity, alongside our brilliant RESTAR youth co-researchers co-delivering creative personalised interviews.

new paper fully co-produced and co-authored with neurodivergent young people
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

we won a prestigious @acamh.bsky.social award last night!!!

new paper fully co-produced and co-authored with neurodivergent young people
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“Constantly overwhelmed and desperate for help”: Parents’ experiences of supporting their autistic child with mental health difficulties in the United Kingdom Autistic children and young people are at increased risk of experiencing mental health difficulties, but often face delays or barriers to accessing support. While evidence exists regarding parents’ ex...

NEW STUDY FROM OUR TEAM
N=300 families of autistic/multiply neurodivergent kids facing mental health crisis with no support
Urgent call for timely + adapted +coproduced psychological services
journals.plos.org/mentalhealth...

Neurodivergent adolescents experience twice the emotional burden at school Negative school experiences generate twice the emotional burden in autistic and ADHD adolescents compared to their neurotypical classmates, and this is significantly correlated with depression and anx...

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. The RE-STAR project run by @grrand-team.bsky.social & others is tracing ways in which school #attendance impacts on ND child & teen MH. Their updates are excellent, eg this one:

www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...

follow @grrand-team.bsky.social for amazing research, training and a community full of heart!

Exploring similarities and differences in how researchers and young people understand key terms in youth mental-health research - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Humanities and Social Sciences Communications - Exploring similarities and differences in how researchers and young people understand key terms in youth mental-health research

new paper from our wonderful team
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“I Guess when a Lot of People Collectively Outwardly Don’t Like you, you Start to find a Dislike Within Yourself”: Experiences of Belonging Among Autistic Adolescents Assigned Female at Birth in Mains... There is evidence that feeling a sense of belonging supports pupils’ social acceptance and is a protective factor against harmful psychological outcomes. Despite this, limited research has considered ...

NEW publication from our team link.springer.com/article/10.1...

NEW webinars' series---- in collaboration with Anna Freud www.autismcentral.org.uk/events/upset...

Autism Central, grounded in lived experience and supported by robust research evidence running by #AnnaFreud working with
@grrand-team.bsky.social
at @uclbrainscience.bsky.social
NEW #NHS commission to improve lives of autistic people of all ages and their families. www.autismcentral.org.uk

“Constantly overwhelmed and desperate for help”: Parents’ experiences of supporting their autistic child with mental health difficulties in the United Kingdom Autistic children and young people are at increased risk of experiencing mental health difficulties, but often face delays or barriers to accessing support. While evidence exists regarding parents’ ex...

@grrand-team.bsky.social, @lucindap0well.bsky.social’s Psychology In The Classroom podcast & obvs the actual research articles:

journals.plos.org/mentalhealth...

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p...

Theme 1) “Wanting to feel seen and heard” focussed on the recognition and validation of the autistic experience and identity, and how understanding of autism informs practice.

Neurodivergent adolescents experience twice the emotional burden at school Negative school experiences generate twice the emotional burden in autistic and ADHD adolescents compared to their neurotypical classmates, and this is significantly correlated with depression and anx...

💯. I’m hugely impressed by the new wave of creative & coproduced #EdRes, such as the @grrand-team.bsky.social & others’ RE-STAR project, investigating the aspects of school life which contribute to poor MH for autistic/ADHD CYP. Hopefully better #inclusion will follow

www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...

“I Guess when a Lot of People Collectively Outwardly Don’t Like you, you Start to find a Dislike Within Yourself”: Experiences of Belonging Among Autistic Adolescents Assigned Female at Birth in Mainstream School Settings - School Mental Health There is evidence that feeling a sense of belonging supports pupils’ social acceptance and is a protective factor against harmful psychological outcomes. Despite this, limited research has considered autistic girls’ belonging experiences in mainstream schools and what needs to change to facilitate belonging. Personal constructs and lived experiences of school belonging were explored using semi-structured interviews and personalised activities (e.g. drawings and poetry) with 18 autistic adolescents assigned female at birth (AFAB) in mainstream school settings. Participants were involved in the data analysis process as they commented on codes and themes. We generated three main themes from the data. Theme 1) “Wanting to feel seen and heard” focussed on the recognition and validation of the autistic experience and identity, and how understanding of autism informs practice. Theme 2) “Longing to belong” focussed on the young people’s experience of trying to develop relationships with others, their experiences of trying to fit in, and the impact that this had on them. Theme 3) “Sensory build-up results in shutdown” focussed on the overwhelming nature of the sensory environment in school, and the impact that this has on both the learning and social experience. All participants want to be externally valued, heard, and involved in the school community. However, aspects of masking, stigma and sensory experiences limit the girls’ belonging in school. Implications for professionals and future research are discussed along with recommendations. The latter can inform future school mental health policy and practice to create emotionally healthy school environments, in which autistic young people can be their authentic selves and have their best lives.

new paper from our wonderful team, experiences of #belonging of autistic AFAB students in mainstream secondary schools
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

This is so powerful, neurodivergent kids carry a heavier emotional burden in mainstream schools.
The students in this report talk a lot about the negative impact of certain interactions with adults in school 😔

Important insights in our latest paper into the emotional lives of young people with diagnoses of #ADHD, #autism or #AuDHD highlighting the specific nature of environmental provocations when designing mental health intervention.
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @uclpals.bsky.social

Social media and autistic mental health research; Shaping the agenda together / Blog | GRRAND By Emma Hyner and Krysia Waldock

Our latest blog captures the journey behind our new paper “Social Media and Autistic Mental Health Research: Shaping the Agenda Together” (In Press currently at Autism in Adulthood Journal)
www.neurodiversity-research.org/blog/2675071...

Systems meant to help often harm #neurodivergent people, especially where biases overlap, causing trauma + marginalisation.

This conference is your chance to connect, collaborate + spark real change✨

All things #trauma #autism #adhd #learningdisabilities #clinical #practice

JCPP Advances | ACAMH Child Development Journal | Wiley Online Library Background Accounts of emotional dysregulation in autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are typically based on external adult observations anchored in neurotypical notions of em.....

NEW paper - Read to find out what young neurodivergent people report as key dysregulation triggers and find out how this can change the game on how define and support emotion regulation in schools....
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

On average, autistic, ADHD & AuDHD students experience around 2x the emotional burden of their peers at school

This study shows that school environments expose on our young people to more frequent & more intense upsetting experiences, and those experiences take a toll

#autism #neurodiversity

Cautious Capitals: Parenting Autistic Children at Mainstream School - Caroline Oliver, Carol Vincent, Georgia Pavlopoulou, 2025 Family social class background significantly influences parents’ relationships with schools, yet the intersection of class with disability is often overlooked. ...

NEW PAPER journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This paper's really interesting

May be my AuDHD daughter's total collapse in school may be due to her emotional burden (EB)

Her experience of commonly upsetting emotions (CUE) and their intensity became too great a burden to endure

School can create trauma & ruin mental health

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

we are waiting for the longitudinal data and coproducing a new preventative whole school intervention...more to come