Dr Joanna Lockwood is a Senior Research Fellow within MindTech at the University of Nottingham. Her research focuses on how digital innovation, coproduction and creative methodologies can enhance understanding, assessment, communication and support relating to self-harm and suicide in children and young people.
She is particularly interested in the wider “team around the child” and how stronger connections between families, community organisations, education settings, healthcare and clinical services can improve prevention, response and ongoing support for young people and those who care for them.
Jo is a core researcher within the multidisciplinary Digital Youth programme, leading the codevelopment of the CaTSapp, a digital tool designed to support collaborative assessment and conversations around self-harm. This work is conducted in partnership with young people, including the Sprouting Minds advisory group, alongside clinical, education and thirdsector collaborators.
CaTS-APP
Jo leads a programme of research focused on parents and carers supporting young people who self-harm or experience suicidal thoughts. Her work highlights the crucial but often unsupported role that parents play as frontline caregivers - keeping young people safe, managing crises, navigating services and coping with significant emotional and practical demands.
Her research examines the emotional, psychological and practical impact on parents caring for a young person in suicidal crisis, highlighting gaps in support, unmet needs and barriers to helpseeking. She also considers how digital tools, coproduced interventions and strong community partnerships can strengthen communication, confidence and connection within families, offering timely, adaptable support across key care points such as disclosure, recovery and relapse.
Infographic page 1 - Meeting the needs of parent and caregivers of young people who self-harm
Infographic page 2 - Meeting the needs of parent and caregivers of young people who self-harm
Infographic page 3 - Meeting the needs of parent and caregivers of young people who self-harm
This includes the development of CANDID (CAregivers Navigating Self-harm And Suicidal Thinking In Children And Young People Through Digital Innovation and Development) - a co-produced digital innovation initiative designed with parents, young people and professionals. CANDID aims to translate lived experience and research evidence into practical, scalable digital support for parents and carers through strong community and healthcare partnerships.
Jo is actively seeking parents, carers and professionals who would like to help shape this work, including contributing to online workshops, research activities or joining steering and advisory groups. Those interested can register via the online Expression of Interest form
Expression of Interest
Jo works closely with community organisations across Nottingham to codevelop arts based mental health initiatives, including storytelling and webcomic projects exploring youth mental health, lived experience and helpseeking.
Art of Mental Stealth and Making Connections Exhibition
Jo led the evaluation of Lumi Nova, an immersive digital game designed to support anxiety in children aged 7–12, working in partnership with industry developers BfB Labs. She designed and delivered the evaluation study, generating evidence that directly contributed to MHRA medical device approval and Lumi Nova’s inclusion in the first NICE Early Value Assessment for digital mental health technologies for children and young people. Her findings, published in JMIR Mental Health, helped accelerate Lumi Nova’s pathway towards NHS uptake and informed implementation work within clinical services.
Lumi Nova
Jo supervises postgraduate students across MSc and PhD programmes within the Division of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology. She welcomes students interested in:
Jo holds a PhD in Applied Psychology, where she explored impulsivity and self-harm in adolescence through school, FE and communitybased research. Prior to joining MindTech, she worked for over a decade in education and thirdsector roles, including as Education Editor at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).