Dr Hardy was nominated in recognition of her co-production and co-design work in developing next generation CBTs for psychosis (CBTp), in collaboration with people from marginalised groups. Dr Hardy is a clinical academic who is strongly committed to redesigning CBT to enhance accessibility and engagement to address inequities in the implementation of CBTp, particularly for the Black communities, as well as supporting the delivery of CBTp across the NHS by a diverse workforce.
This work started when Dr Hardy put together an interdisciplinary team, including experts by experience, to redesign a digitally supported intervention for paranoia, SlowMo. This involved adopting an inclusive, human-centred design approach to address the risk inherent in participatory design that the most willing, able, and vocal users are more likely to be involved, neglecting the needs of minoritised groups. In response to this concern, Amy incorporated ethnographic design research methods to purposively engage people with lived experience from diverse backgrounds.
This year, Dr Hardy led a study demonstrating that the SlowMo design bridged the ‘digital divide’ as technology-related inequalities associated with age and ethnicity were not associated with engagement, suggesting SlowMo supports digital inclusion. She also leads media engagement for the SlowMo team, which has resulted in: broadcasts on both Sky News and BBC radio and television; as well as several print media titles; and exhibitions at WIRED Health, the Design Museum, NHS Expo, and the Royal Society Summer Exhibition.
Recently, Dr Hardy repurposed SlowMo to develop a webpage for the public to support stress management during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was disseminated through King’s Health Partners and the Health Innovation Network, and is now leading on the implementation of SlowMo in the NHS.
