Inspire The Mind (ITM) is a Denmark Hill based magazine which focuses on mental health. Founded in 2019, ITM is a collaboration of researchers and students from King’s College London’s (KCL’s) Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (IoPPN).
Roar spoke to Melisa Kose, a PhD student and researcher in the Stress Psychiatry and Immunology lab.
As part of the ITM x Roar collaboration, check out ITM’s interview with former Science Editor, Jana Bazeed here!
Melisa was an undergraduate student when the magazine was launched. She, along with Courtney Worrell and Professor Carmine Pariante came together to “make science accessible for the general public”.
Professor Pariante is the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine.
“Over time, we also started focusing more and more on bringing in authentic voices of those with lived experience and using evidence-based research to support their stories”.
Melisa Kose, PhD student in KCL’s IoPPN
Roar: How does ITM work to bridge the gap between researchers and students?
Melisa: I think right from the beginning, a huge part of our mission has been to do exactly that: bring together the voices of researchers, students and those with lived experience as well. We’re all going through similar things; we’ll just have different language to talk about those things. The research that we do impacts everyone: those in the general public, those working in the health sector, students, irrespective of career, irrespective of age. Everyone is affected by mental health and mental illness.
M: What, for example, the general public and students might sometimes lack is the language. I think that’s been a huge part of why ITM has worked as well as it has, because we want to help people from all walks of life, from any stage in their academic career, to build those tools and build the language to talk about mental health in an accurate and evidence-based way.
M: I think it’s impossible to have a research career without being a good science disseminator.
R: What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of young people’s mental health today?
M: There is a tonne that is misunderstood about young mental health, but so much of it stems from what we simply don’t yet know … For example, the introduction of AI so suddenly and so intensely across the board and in education. We don’t yet know how that’s going to impact our mental health and how we learn in the long term. Also stressful times like COVID and how that’s been impacting our mental health. We’re not really going to know the long-term effects of these both until years from now
M: One thing that I do admire about this generation is how much more comfortable they are opening up about their mental health. I think there’s also a promising rise in comfort and talking about mental health and seeking support and supporting one another.
M: When I was a master’s student, working at ITM, one of our lectures was taught by Professor Pariante. He talked about Inspire the Mind and invited the students of the class to reach out and write for us as well. Maybe a couple reached out and that was only four or five years ago, whereas with the master’s students now, you’re seeing so much more of that engagement.
R: Were there any immediate impacts that you started to see within, say, two years of AI?
M: I think it’ll be interesting to see how things like relationships evolve. And I don’t necessarily mean just romantic relationships, but also friendships and dynamics between students and how they work on collaborating on projects together
M: I’m personally constantly fascinated by: how AI is going to affect people’s curiosity and how is it going to affect their interest? Genuine interest in doing what they do, when they’re able to just ask an AI bot to, for example, come up with a hypothesis that makes sense based on XYZ factors
R: How can students get more involved with ITM?
M: We’re always encouraging students to get more involved and that’s been one of our core missions since the very beginning. And so we currently offer an editorial internship, in partnership with the MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mind-Body Interface, for students to get to know the editorial process and the ins and outs of Science dissemination.
M: Everyone is always more than welcome to submit a pitch and we walk our writers through the entire editorial process. So even if you’re very new to writing and want to build those skills, we always have that opportunity available as well.
R: Are there any specific pieces that you’ve done that you’re particularly fond of talking about?
M: My first ever piece that I wrote was a three-part dissection of a range of movies, looking at cinema from a mental health lens. I was looking at things like how the mad scientist trope has evolved over time or the different ways that depression is depicted in cinema over the last few decades. Another piece that I’m really proud of was about how mental health has become kind of a marketing strategy for some brands over the years. At the time, it was talking about those brand accounts on Twitter and social media runs that they’ll do on, for example, World Mental Health Day, to promote some new product with a loose link to mental health. I spoke about how brands will use social media to try and capitalise on people’s interest in mental health and wanting to talk about mental health to seem, I guess, more relatable, which is something we see across a range of different social issues and social topics.
Melisa gave a great view into how KCL’s IoPPN is going the extra mile to communicate their research with the public. Science communications will always be an intricate part of scientific research.
ITM’s collaboration with Roar helps us better understand the research happening on the different KCL campuses.
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