Health Service & Population Research

About Health Service and Population Research

The overall goal of the Health Service and Population Research (HSPR) Department is to conduct world-leading research and education using the social and health sciences to better understand and to improve health outcomes, systems, and care, both locally and globally, particularly in disadvantaged and marginalised populations. 

HSPR is multi-disciplinary, including health care professionals, epidemiologists, economists, implementation scientists, qualitative methodologists, service users, social scientists, and statisticians, and we work with academic, clinical, and policy organisations locally, in London and the UK, and internationally, in low, middle, and high-income countries.  

HSPR aims to:

• Understand the onset of mental health problems 
• Develop strategies for prevention and influence policy 
• Improve access to evidence-based mental health services 
• Improve the quality of mental health services 
• Achieve the best outcomes for service users and their families 
• Promote service user recovery and the rights of service users
• Challenge stigma and discrimination 

Our research involves the rigorous application of the methods of mental health sciences to better understand population health and health systems and to evaluate the efficacy and implementation of services and treatments. This is carried out in eight Research Groups: 

• Centre for Global Mental Health
• Centre for Implementation Science
• King’s Health Economics
• Mental Health Nursing
• Qualitative Research Group
• Social Epidemiology Research Group
• Section of Women’s Mental Health 
• Service User Research Enterprise

Our teaching includes:

• MSc in Global Mental Health (see Our courses below)
• PhD and MD(Res) programmes in Health Service and Population Research
• Summer schools in quantitative and qualitative research methods, women’s mental health, implementation science and health service implementation
• Bespoke training for clinicians and for health services and population researchers 

The Health Service and Population Research Department was founded in 1999 by Sir Graham Thornicroft, Professor of Community Psychiatry, and is currently led by Sarah Byford, Professor of Health Economics.

Our courses 

Our people