Charlotte Bjerre Meilstrup

Charlotte Bjerre Meilstrup

Postdoc

Member of:

Office hours: Thursdays 9:30-10:30

I am employed as a postdoctoral reasearcher. My main research area is within public mental health promotion. I have a background in Public Health and thereby have a natural interest in how different disciplines and methodologies can work together and supplement each other.

Throughout my academic career, I have been interested in how research can be translated into practice to create better mental health for as many as possible.

In my early years as a research assistant, I was part of translating research from the Danish part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey (HBSC) into a concrete initiative in primary schools (Projekt Optur) where the pedagogical staff was educated and trained to promote the mental health of their students.

In my PhD, I also focused on mental health promotion, social inequality and how schools' ethos and environment can promote the mental health of the students and reduce inequality in mental health problems.

Current research

I am currently the head of the ABCs of mental health, which is the first research-based mental health promotion initiative in Denmark. The ABCs is organized as a large intersectoral and interdisciplinary partnership covering more than 70 partners across all of Denmark including researchers, municipalities, NGOs, and the Region of Southern Denmark.
In the partnership we all work towards the same vision of promoting public mental health by 1) informing that it is possible (and what can be done) to promote one's own and others' mental health and 2) by creating the best conditions and surrounding for as many as possible to be able to:

Act: Do something (Gør noget aktivt)
Belong: Do something with someone (Gør noget sammen)
Commit: Do something meaningful (Gør noget meningsfuldt)

The ABCs of mental health has already had a large societal impact and through collaboration with my research group, it has spread to the Faroe Islands, Norway, and Sweden. Finland has also taken initial steps to implement the ABCs as a pilot project within a limited number of municipalities. Furthermore, other European countries have shown interest in implementing the ABCs.

The ABCs of mental health is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation in 2023 and from 2024 we will be receiving governmental funding though a ten-year plan for psychiatry and mental health.

I am continuously presenting and doing workshops for politicians, researchers, and practicians both nationally and internationally and I am actively contributing to the debate on mental health in tv, radio, newspapers, and podcasts.

Some of the strongest drivers in my work life is to translate research into practice. Through several projects, I have experience with developing, implementing, leading, and evaluating interventions to promote public mental health.

I am also part of Together at Social Sciences – The ABCs of mental health at the university (Sammen på SAMF – ABC for mental sundhed på universitetet) which is an ABC-inspired initiative aiming at promoting students' mental health.

Profile on LinkedIn: Charlotte Meilstrup | LinkedIn

The ABCs of mental health profile on LinkedIn: ABC for mental sundhed | LinkedIn

Primary fields of research

Mental health, mental health promption, well-being, partnerships, intervention research, social inequality, mental health among children and adolescents

Teaching

I am teaching on the elective course 'Mental health promotion in theory and practice' which is offered to bachelor students for the first time in the fall 2023. You can read more here: Elective course - Mental health promotion in theory and practice - 2023/2024.

ID: 4373606