Professor Margaret Maxwell

Professor

CHeCR University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Professor Margaret Maxwell

Contact details

About me

Professor Maxwell has been involved in health services research for over 30 years. She was Director of the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Research Unit from 2016-2024 (Deputy Director from 2009-2016). Her research interests include: quality and delivery of care; primary care; primary care mental health; long term conditions and mental health; psychosocial needs assessment; public mental health and wellbeing including suicide prevention.

More recently she has been involved in several studies in maternal mental health including a large UK wide cohort study of perinatal anxiety; assessing measures for screening for antenatal anxiety; and has been a key lead in fostering collaborations across SE Asia in the field of perinatal mental health.

She has continually been involved in EU funded mental health research for over 20 years, much of which has been focused on depression and suicide. She was among the founding members of the European Alliance Against Depression and its i-FightDepression resources. Most recently this EU work has focused on mental health in the workplace (MENTUPP), specifically helping small to medium sized enterprises to address mental health and wellbeing. The current Horizon Europe study PROSPERH addresses both physical and mental health in the workplace. Both MENTUPP and PROSPERH involve developing free to access on-line platforms and resources translated into multiple languages and tested in full-scale cluster randomised controlled trials in healthcare, construction and ICT enterprises across Europe.

Her interests in workplace mental health have extended to exploring the needs and preferences, and evaluating interventions for those living/working in the farming community who are experiencing mental health problems.

She is also more currently active in addressing the needs of children and young people who have experienced suicidality (expressing thoughts of suicide or engaging in suicidal behaviours). Interests include: evaluating current service responses to suicidal children and young people; supporting parents of children experiencing suicidality; and seeking to co-produce better service models for children and young people experiencing suicidality.

Research interests include: Quality and delivery of healthcare Primary Care Mental Health and wellbeing Suicide prevention Children and Young People and suicide Perinatal mental health Implementation/improvement science Realist evaluation