Milly Johnston

• Attend Dragon Café day sessions to supports adults with mental health problems with therapeutic creative activities.

• Took the lead in planning and conducting interviews and group workshops, tailored to effectively engage adolescents aged 14-18 in co-developing a sleep and mental health app-based intervention.
• Recruited participants and disseminated findings at local schools and colleges
• Authored app content and co-authored three academic papers describing the project's process and findings.
• Second reviewer in a systematic review of digital interventions for anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescence, screened over 4000 papers.

• Applied my expertise in using the Person Based Approach to lead the co-design of an intervention to reduce e-cigarette use amongst adolescents.

• Designed surveys, collected and analysed both quantitative and qualitative survey data.

• Kept excellent records e.g. study logs, consort.

• Independently applied for ethical approval. Recruited teachers and students from seven schools in the South West Region.

• Designed and conducted one workshop and five qualitative interviews.

• Conducted literature searches. Supported and mentored undergraduate and masters psychology students.

• Disseminated our work through public engagement, media engagement and reports.

• Worked across varied inpatient mental health wards across Bristol including: acute, PICU, drug & alcohol detox, CAMHS, older adults, forensic and learning disability and rehabilitation.
• Became skilled in being alert and observant during 1:1 and intermittent observations.
• Kept accurate and structured records of observations of patients.
• Quickly learnt admissions, discharge and leave processes on different wards.
• Learned how to build trust and rapport quickly with patients and staff, always maintaining strong personal and professional boundaries.
• Trained in Reducing Restrictive Interventions. Through applying this learning, became skilled at empathic verbal de-escalation.
• Became familiar with different sections under the Mental Health Act.

• Developed a passion for using community-led and participatory methodologies to conduct research aimed at reducing social inequalities.
• Balanced competing time demands of five qualitative projects which explored individual experiences of: access to mental healthcare; integration of diaspora communities; community development needs.
• Contributed to all stages of the research process: performed literature searches, developed research proposals, recruited participants, designed and conducted semi-structured interviews, and used thematic analysis to analyse the resulting data.
• Key stakeholders included: Power to Change, the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, the British Academy, NCS, the Lottery Fund, and the Institute for Community Studies.

• Provided one-to-one continuous support to infants, children and adolescents with special educational needs.
• Worked in temporary and longer-term placements across nurseries, primary and secondary schools.
• Led interventions such as attentional interventions for autism and ADHD
• Designed lesson plans & supervised whole classes at break and lunchtime
• Identified signs of distress in students, resolving behavioural and emotional issues through de-escalation and therapeutic techniques.
• Assisted pupils to reach social, physical and emotional development milestones.
• Collaborated with teachers and parents to ensure continuity of care.

• Worked with six adult residents who required extra support with daily living due to learning disability and mental health problems
• Built caring, supportive relationships with residents, based on patience, trust and non-judgement.
• Supported residents to write their own care plans and carefully followed this guidance when supporting them.
• Provided emotional support as well as support with daily living.
• Liaised with external and internal professionals to advocate for residents and to ensure continuity of care.

• Designed and facilitated activity sessions focused on improving communication, cognition, physical, creative or psychosocial skills.
• Group sizes varied from 4-30: participants included adults, adolescents and children in schools, care homes, psychiatric hospitals and community centres across Colombo.

• Worked with a multi-disciplinary team to support adults suffering from severe & enduring mental health problems to build the confidence and independence to reintegrate into the community.
• Formulated a report which critically evaluated the service's consistency with specific psychological models.
• The report was used to improve the service, and to highlight strengths of the service to CQC inspectors.

This section includes experience relevant to this role; full employment history available upon request.