LJMU Lecturer wins national Asian Women of Achievement Award

This award celebrates Asian women who have achieved success in senior executive or non-executive roles in the civil service, universities and national institutions such as the NHS.

Pooja's research is focused at an individual-level, community-level and whole systems approach on risk management and decision-making processes for individuals, professionals and service providers within forensic, clinical and non-clinical settings. Her main research interests are in suicide and self-harm prevention particularly in young people, cancer prevention in Black and Asian Ethnic Minority Groups, reduction of health inequalities and co-production.

The Awards, founded by Pinky Lilani CBE DL in 1999, celebrate multicultural Britain and the contribution of diverse cultures and talents to UK society.

Pinky commented:

"We have been blown away by the range of applications received for this year's Asian Women of Achievement Awards and I feel honoured and excited that we can shine a spotlight on the important work of our shortlisted candidates. From women working on the cutting edge of science and medicine to those who dedicate their lives to giving a voice to the voiceless, we can be truly proud of the positive impact these British-Asian women are making on the world today."

Pooja, who was also named winner of the night, enthused:

"I am feeling overwhelmed by the whole thing and honoured that my work is now being recognised. I hope that this will give me a platform to gain funding to pursue my work in suicide prevention in all populations but particularly young people and South Asian populations. The aim is to have more effective early intervention as my research has shown that many suicides may have been preventable if they had access to an appropriate service sooner - in most cases a community-based service would have been effective in treating some individuals and this is what I am currently trying to develop."