Elizabeth McDermott is a Professor of Health Inequality at

Lancaster University Lancaster University (legally The University of Lancaster) is a public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several pla ...

, in England. Her research considers mental health inequality, with a focus on

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and young people.

Early life and education

McDermott earned her doctoral degree at the

, where she studied the influence of

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

identity and

on wellbeing. She was a postdoctoral researcher on a project that looked to understand how people affected by cancer understood end of life issues.

Research and career

In 2006 McDermott joined the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

as an Assistant Professor. She returned to

in 2013. From 2014 McDermott led the Department of Health and Social Care study into

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

youth suicide. The research programme looked to understand why

young people have a higher risk of suicide than their heterosexual counterparts. The programme came to be known as ''Queer Futures'', and identified that 70% of young people have experienced discrimination or bullying related to their sexual orientation. She also identified that 4 out of 5 young people hid their sexual orientation or gender identity, and those that hide their gender identity are almost two times as likely to self-harm. The study contributed to the

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Encyclopaedia of LGBTQ Studies. The LBGT youth suicide project expanded into the

National Institute for Health Research The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "impr ...

''Queer Futures 2'', which looks to improve the mental health provision for

young people. Queer Futures 2 partnered with The Blueprint study, which looked at community-based mental health provision. McDermott has worked with the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

to implement findings based on her research, including

awareness training, remarking that ‘We need to provide safe and non-judgemental environments for young people to talk about their sexualities, and mental health services outside the clinical environment’. McDermot serves on the board of trustees of the Consortium of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Voluntary and Community Organisations.

Selected publications

Her publications include; * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDermott, Elizabeth Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Lancaster University Academics of Lancaster University Academics of the University of York British LGBT academics British women academics Lesbian academics