Tel:- 01865 613174

Email:- ksenija.yeeles@psych.ox.ac.uk

Biography

I joined the Social Psychiatry group at the University of Oxford in June 2007.

I completed my degree in Psychology at the University of Zagreb, Croatia with a thesis on the revision of the general education test for final year students of secondary education. After graduating I worked for 9 years in a Croatian nongovernmental organization the Society for Psychological Assistance (SPA). Between 1992 and 1995 I was providing psychosocial assistance to refugees in the refugee collective centres. From 1994 I was a national and international trainer and consultant for UNICEF, Care International, Catholic Relief Services, Marie Stopes, and the International Rescue Committee conducting training for mental health professionals and paraprofessionals from the countries of the former Yugoslavia on psychosocial trauma and recovery, stress, loss and grief, communication and counselling skills. My work in SPA also included co-ordination of different projects and counselling and supervision in psychosocial work.

After moving to UK my focus was research in the long- term consequences of war on people with war experiences who live in exile and then more latterly research of coercion in psychiatry.

Profile

1992                 BSc in Psychology, University of Zagreb, Croatia

1993-02            Projects’ coordinator, trainer, supervisor and councillor in the Society for Psychological Assistance, Zagreb, Croatia

1996-99            Systemic Family Therapy Training Institut d'etudes systemiques, Paris, France

2000-02            Advanced Supervision Training, University of Stockholm and University of Gothenburg, Sweden

1996-01            Gestalt Psychotherapy Training, IGW, Institut für Integrative Gestalttherapie Würzburg, Germany & Idemo dalje d.o.o. Zagreb, Croatia

2004 -08           Research Assistant, Unit for Psychological Assistance, Bart’s and London School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London

2007 - present   Research Co-ordinator, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford

Research 

I continued my interest in refugees through my 2.5 years involvement in the study “Components, organisation, costs and outcomes of health care and community based interventions for people with posttraumatic stress following war and conflict in Balkans” (CONNECT) led by Professor Stefan Priebe at the Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry in London . The CONNECT study focused on long-term clinical and social outcomes of people with war experience in 4 countries of the former Yugoslavia and in refugees in 3 countries in the EU, and aimed to identify the impact of social and health care interventions on these outcomes.

Within the same institution I was a project coordinator of the multicentre national study "Outcomes of Involuntary Hospital Admission in England". The study aimed to provide empirical evidence about the practice of involuntary hospital admissions, its outcome and the predictors of outcome. This was probably the largest national study of involuntary hospitalization.

Since 2007 as a member of the social psychiatry group at the University of Oxford I continued my involvement in research of coercion in mental health care within a large national study on patterns and prevalence of coercion in mental health care. I am managing the ULTIMA (“Use of Leverage Tools to Improve Mental Health Care Adherence”) study. This study aims to examine patients’ experience of coercion in community mental health care.

Publications

Priebe S., Katsakou C., Amos T., Leese M., Morriss R., Rose D., Wykes T. & Yeeles K.(2009) Patients’ views and Readmissions 1 Year After Involuntary Hospitalisation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 194, 49-54.

Yeeles, K. (2004) Etika u superviziji –međunarodna perspektiva (Ethics in Supervision – international perspective).  In Ajdukovic, M. & Cajvert, L. (Eds.),  Supervizija u psihosocijalnom radu (Supervision in psychosocial work). Zagreb: Društvo za psiholosku pomoć (in Croatian)

Kontak, K. & Kuterovac Jagodic, G. (2002) Group Interventions for Children in Crisis. In Zubenko, W. & Capozzoli, J.(Eds.), Children and Disasters: A Practical Guide to healing and Recovery, pp.135-158. New York: Oxford University Press (maiden name Kontak incorrectly spelt Kontac).

Kuterovac Jagodic, G. &  Kontak, K. (2002) Normalization: A Key to Children’s Recovery. In Zubenko, W. & Capozzoli, J.(Eds.), Children and Disasters: A Practical Guide to healing and Recovery,  pp.135-158. New York: Oxford University Press (maiden name Kontak incorrectly spelt Kontac).

Ajduković, M., Čevizović, M. & Kontak, K. (1995). Groupwork in Croatia: experiences with older refugees. Groupwork 8 (1), pp 34-48.

Selected Published Abstracts and Posters

Yeeles, K., Burns, T. (2008) Community Treatment Orders: Challenges in conduction an RCT; ENMESH; Krakow, Poland.

Yeeles, K., Katsakou, C. & Priebe, S. (2007) Predictors of Outcomes of Involuntary Hospital Admission; William Harvey Days, Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine, London.

Yeeles, K., Priebe, S. & Katsakou, C. (2007) Many patients do not participate in research. Can results still be generalised? World Psychiatric Association Thematic Conference: „Coercive Treatment in Psychiatry: a Comprehensive Review“; Dresden, Germany.

Yeeles, K., Priebe, S. & Katsakou, C. (2006) Outcomes of Involuntary Hospital Admission in England – Study Presentation. Turkish Journal of Psychiatry. World Psychiatric Association: International Congress “Psychiatry: Uniqueness and Universality”; Istanbul, Turkey.