Staff Profile

I am a Mental Health Fellow in the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for the North East and North Cumbria. I am a mixed methods researcher, and my work seeks to develop and test the effectiveness of interventions for youth mental health problems. I have a particular interest in interventions for self-harm and suicide prevention in young people. I am co-investigator on the Support Adolescents with Self-Harm (SASH) trial which is testing Therapeutic Assessment, Safety Planning and Solution Focused Follow-up Sessions for adolescents presenting to A&E with self-harm (www.sashstudy.co.uk).

Before joining Newcastle University, I worked at City University of London as Programme Manager on a £2.7 million NIHR programme grant, ‘ASsuRED: Improving outcomes in patients who self-harm – Adapting and evaluating a brief pSychological inteRvention in Emergency Departments’ (Assured). Prior to that, I worked at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families on the 'Improving Mood with Psychoanalytic and Cognitive Therapies' (IMPACT) trial and the qualitative sibling study, IMPACT-My Experience (IMPACT-ME). I undertook my PhD at University College London as part of the IMPACT and IMPACT-ME studies, which investigated treatment dropout for young people receiving therapy for depression. I developed a particular interest in mixed-methods, including ideal-type analysis which is a qualitative method for constructing typologies. I have co-authored a book on ideal-type analysis, published as part of a qualitative methods series by the American Psychological Association.

Research Interests

• Young people's mental health
• Self-harm and suicide prevention
• Mixed methods research

Funding

• McCabe, R., O'Keeffe, S., Priebe, S., Ougrin, D., Martin, P., & Feng, Y. (2020). A Psychological Intervention to Reduce Suicidal Behaviour in Adolescence. The Kavli Trust £750,000.

• Articles

  • Meier J, Thackeray L, O'Keeffe S, Midgley N. The therapy process with depressed adolescents who drop out of psychoanalytic psychotherapy: an empirical case study. Journal of Child Psychotherapy 2023, 49(3), 393-411.
  • Loades ME, Midgley N, Herring G, O'Keeffe S, The IMPACT Consortium, Reynolds S, Goodyer I. In Context: Lessons About Adolescent Unipolar Depression From the Improving Mood With Psychoanalytic and Cognitive Therapies Trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2023, Epub ahead of print.
  • Lord H, O'Keeffe S, Panagiotopoulou E, Midgley N. Exploring Parental Perspectives on Dropout from Treatment for Adolescent Depression. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy 2023, 22(2), 169-178.
  • O'Keeffe S, Suzuki M, McCabe R. An Ideal-Type Analysis of People’s Perspectives on Care Plans Received from the Emergency Department following a Self-Harm or Suicidal Crisis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2023, 20(19), 6883.
  • Stapley E, O'Keeffe S, Midgley N. Developing typologies in qualitative research: The use of ideal-type analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 2022, 21, 1-9.
  • O'Keeffe S, Midgley N. A commentary on 'Dropout from randomised controlled trials of psychological treatments for depression in children and youth: a systematic review and meta-analyses'. Journal of Affective Disorders 2022, 299, 142-143.
  • O'Keeffe S, Suzuki M, Ryan M, Hunter J, McCabe R. Experiences of care for self-harm in the Emergency Department: a comparison of perspectives of patients, carers and practitioners. BJPsych Open 2021, 7(5), e175.
  • O'Keeffe S, Martin P, Midgley N. When adolescents stop psychological therapy: Rupture–repair in the therapeutic alliance and association with therapy ending. Psychotherapy 2020, 57(4), 471-490.
  • O'Keeffe S, Weitkamp K, Isaacs D, Target M, Eatough V, Midgley N. Parents’ understanding and motivation to take part in a randomized controlled trial in the field of adolescent mental health: a qualitative study. Trials 2020, 21, 952.
  • Fonagy P, Lemma A, Target M, O'Keeffe S, Constantinou M, Ventura Wurman T, Luyten P, Allison L, Roth T, Cape J, Pilling S. Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy for moderate to severe depression: A pilot randomized controlled and feasibility trial. Psychological Medicine 2020, 50(6), 1010-1019.
  • Grossfeld M, Calderon A, O'Keeffe S, Green V, Midgley N. Short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a depressed adolescent with Borderline Personality Disorder: an empirical, single case study. Journal of Child Psychotherapy 2019, 45(2), 209-228.
  • O'Keeffe S, Martin P, Goodyer I, Kelvin R, Dubicka B, IMPACT Consortium, Midgley N. Prognostic implications for depressed adolescents who drop out of psychological treatment during a randomised controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2019, 58(10), 983-992.
  • O'Keeffe S, Martin P, Target M, Midgley N. 'I just stopped going': A mixed methods investigation into types of therapy dropout in adolescents with depression. Frontiers in Psychology 2019, 10, 75.
  • Midgley N, Reynolds S, Kelvin R, Loades M, Calderon A, Martin P, IMPACT Consortium, O'Keeffe S. Therapists' techniques in the treatment of adolescent depression. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration 2018, 28(4), 413-428.
  • O'Keeffe S, Martin P, Goodyer I, Wilkinson P, IMPACT Consortium, Midgley N. Predicting dropout in adolescents receiving therapy for depression. Psychotherapy Research 2018, 28(5), 708-721.
  • Dunn V, O'Keeffe S, Stapley E, Midgley N. Facing Shadows: Working with young people to coproduce a short film about depression. Research Involvement and Engagement 2018, 4, 46.
  • Midgley N, O'Keeffe S, French L, Kennedy E. Psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and adolescents: an updated critical review of the evidence-base. Journal of Child Psychotherapy 2017, 43(3), 307-329.
  • Midgley N, Parkinson S, Holmes J, Stapley E, Eatough V, Target M. "Did I bring it on myself?" An exploratory study of the beliefs that adolescents referred to mental health services have about the causes of their depression. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2017, 26(1), 25-34.
  • Parkinson S, Midgley N, Holmes J, Stapley E, Eatough V. Framework Analysis: A worked example of a study exploring young people’s experiences of depression. Qualitative Research in Psychology 2016, 13(2), 109-129.
  • Midgley N, Holmes J, Parkinson S, Stapley E, Eatough V, Target M. "Just like talking to someone about like shit in your life and stuff, and they help you": hopes and expectations for therapy among depressed adolescents. Psychotherapy Research 2016, 26(1), 11-21.
  • Midgley N, Parkinson S, Holmes J, Stapley E, Eatough V, Target M. Beyond a diagnosis: The experience of depression among clinically-referred adolescents. Journal of Adolescence 2015, 44(1), 269-279.

• Authored Book

  • Stapley E, O'Keeffe S, Midgley N. Essentials of Ideal-Type Analysis: A Qualitative Approach to Constructing Typologies. American Psychological Association, 2021.

• Book Chapter

  • Currie CC, Walburn J, Hackett K, McCabe R, Sniehotta F, O'Keeffe S, Beerlage-de Jong N, Araujo-Soares V. Intervention Development for Health Behaviour Change: Integrating Evidence and the Perspectives of Users and Stakeholders. In: Geert Crombez, ed. Comprehensive Clinical Psychology. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2022, pp.118-148.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

  • Parkinson S, Dunn V, Stapley E, Midgley N. Service user participation in qualitative mental health research: sharing adolescents' experiences of depression through film. In: UCL Qualitative Health Research Symposium. 2017, London: BMJ Publishing Group.