Lynne is currently employed as a research fellow at NMAPH-RU, at the University of Stirling, where she is working on the Stepping Stones Study, and is co-PI for the NSPLG Youth Advisory Group (YAG), alongside Amy Woodhouse from Children in Scotland, who host the YAG.
Prior to returning to academia in 2016, Lynne had spent nearly twenty years working with children and young people, and families in a variety of roles and contexts. This included working with young homeless people, as a mental health worker for female survivors of child sexual abuse, managing therapeutic children’s homes, developing, and delivering a suicide and self-harm service for children and young people, team leader of the children’s services with a women’s aid service, and children’s advocacy worker with ASSIST (an independent domestic abuse advocacy service).
Lynne returned to academia to try to effect changes in policy and practice through research. Her PhD explored the journeys of care and experiences of children, their parents, and practitioners, after they are referred to CAMHS for suicidality. Lynne is committed to a children’s rights-based, and feminist approach, valuing participatory and co-production approaches. With a background in Sociology, she is also interested in exploring discourses around suicidality and mental health in children.