Michelle Kay

Michelle is an NIHR ARC NW London Public Partner working in the Multimorbidity & Mental Health Theme as a Public Partner/Co-investigator on the Best for You Project, a Public Partner on the Innovation & Evaluation Theme, and she is a member of the Public Partners Advisory Group. She has 24 years’ experience on GP Surgery Patient Participation Groups, and 30 years’ experience delivering Stress Management and Wellbeing training, and also worked in Complementary Health. She has delivered training for charities, youth groups, community groups, schools, carers, NHS staff, hospices, mental health, and dementia care homes. She has worked with young people and adults experiencing stress and anxiety, and she provided wellbeing helpline support for Carers during the pandemic. Before working in healthcare, Michelle trained in Drama and public speaking, and worked in Theatre, including Youth Theatre Groups. Michelle has lived-experience of multimorbidity and of being a carer for elderly parents with complex multimorbidity conditions.  

Michelle is passionate about person-centred, holistic care which improves patient pathways, patient outcomes and patient wellbeing. For her Fellowship Project, she is analysing the barriers and facilitators of Young People with mental health problems who are referred via the Best for You New Model of Care, to specialist mental health digital resources and in-person care through the lens of Locus of Control psychological theory, to determine how LOC may affect young peoples‘ motivation for Self-care and Health Activation.