Dr Dan Romeu is medically qualified and a Higher Trainee in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (ST4). In August 2024, he started an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Leeds. His research project is called:
“Emergency Care After Self-Harm (EmCASH): what works for young people, why, and in what circumstances?”.
Self-harm is common in young people and increases the risk of early death, especially by suicide. Increasing numbers of young people go to hospital after they self-harm, but assessment and treatment in hospital is often not medically necessary and the experience can be distressing and unhelpful.
Dan is using realist methods to understand how health (and other) services could better support young people when they self-harm. The project is made up of 4 parts:
- A review of previous studies to see what services exist for young people who self-harm in England, and what we already know about what helps them, when and why.
- Analysis of existing data of NHS 111, ambulance and emergency department use in Yorkshire, to see how young people use these services after they self-harm.
- Individual interviews to understand the experiences of young people who have self-harmed, as well as their parents and carers.
- An integration stage to bring the first 3 parts together in a way that is accessible to young people and their families, healthcare professionals, commissioners and policymakers.
This project involves working closely with key stakeholder groups – a young people’s advisory group, a parents’ and carers’ advisory group, and a healthcare professionals’ advisory group – to ensure that the research is meaningful and rooted in lived experience.
Dan’s other interests include neurodiversity, unexplained symptoms and sustainability.
In his clinical time, Dan works within the mental health crisis team in Leeds Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).