Penny Bee

Professor Penny Bee is Chair in Applied Health Research and Director of Research and Innovation at the University of Manchester's School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work. She serves as Deputy Theme Lead for Mental Health in the NIHR ARC Greater Manchester and leads research focused on innovative mental health service delivery models, particularly telephone and remote CBT interventions.

Professor Bee graduated from Loughborough University with first class honours in Human Biology (1997) and completed her PhD in reproductive psychology (2001). Her career includes postdoctoral positions at the University of Manchester where she has developed expertise in applied health research relevant to government policy.

Her research examines mental health service delivery from user and carer perspectives, with particular focus on accessibility, satisfaction, and barriers to care. Current projects investigate telephone-delivered psychological therapies, mental health in Indonesia, and COVID-19 impacts on social care. She applies systematic reviews, randomized trials, qualitative methods, and mixed-method approaches to complex interventions.

Professor Bee's publication output demonstrates consistent focus on optimizing psychological interventions across diverse populations and settings. Recent work explores cross-cultural mental health, digital interventions in Indonesia, caregiver support in autism, and maintaining recovery after low-intensity treatments.

Her significant grants include:

• NIHR PGfAR: Improving telephone-delivered psychological therapies
• Sustainable Treatment of Anxiety and Depression in Indonesia (Global Health Research Group)
• NIHR Rapid Evaluation Team REVAL
• SECURE Study: Social care evaluation of COVID-19 workforce response
• NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester

She teaches evidence-based mental health practice, research methods, and patient-public involvement at postgraduate levels, and currently supervises doctoral projects on anxiety in older adults, psychological wellbeing in students, and engagement in psychological therapies.