Lou Cherrill

Management of self-harm and suicidal behaviours, safety planning, harm-minimisation, research in the context of evidence-based practice for nursing students, and research ethics.

Lou began her career in nursing as a mature student at UEA in 2015 undertaking the BSc (Hons) in Mental Health Nursing, having previously completed a British Psychological Society accredited BSc in Psychology, with an interest in mental health, and a PgCert in Psychiatry. As a newly qualified nurse, Lou presented her undergraduate work on empowering control of self-harming behaviours in young people at the 24^th International Mental Health Nursing Research Conference in Manchester, winning best student abstract submission.  

Lou has an interest in therapeutic interventions for use in mental health community treatment settings, and since qualifying has enjoyed working in roles in adult community mental health and youth community mental health, before specialising in triage and assessment for access to adult community services. Whilst working clinically, Lou has completed her PgCert in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), enabling her to practice as an intensively trained DBT therapist. Lou maintains a role as a Senior Community Mental Health Nurse in access and assessment to NHS services alongside her lecturing role at UEA.

Lou has also completed her MSc in Clinical Research and is currently working towards her PhD. She sits on the Faculty of Medicine and Health Research Ethics Committee and has a keen interest teaching applied knowledge of research ethics for students. She is module organiser for the pre-registration nursing MSc Principles and Practice of Healthcare Research 1 module and supports the delivery of Principles and Practice of Healthcare Research 2.

Lou’s research area of interest is the prevention and management of self-harm in young people.    

Lou is a part of the MSc pre-registration nursing sciences team, delivering teaching across the modules with a focus on research and nursing practice, but she also teaches pre-registration MSc and BSc programmes across the nursing fields. Lou enjoys teaching therapeutic interventions for use in the community with various symptomology presentations, with a particular focus on management of self-harm and suicide behaviours from a harm-minimisation perspective. She also enjoys teaching research methods in the context of evidence-based practice for nursing and understanding and applying ethical principles for research.

Faculty of Medicine and Health Ethics committee – member – January 2019 to present.

Advisor, pre-registration nursing students, September 2023 to present.

Neurodiversity Community for UEA staff – moderator – November 2023 to present.

Module Organiser for Principles and Practice of Healthcare Research, March 2024 to present.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee (School of Health Sciences) – member – May 2024 to present.

Lou is a member of the International Network of Early Career Researchers in Suicide and Self-harm 

Lou Cherrill (netecr.org)