Areeba Shahab
About
Areeba earned her BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Warwick in 2018 and an MSc in Health Psychology from University College London in 2019.
Fuelled by her passion for translating psychological principles into practical and contextual settings, she joined an international global service delivery and health research organisation in Pakistan. Over four years, she worked with multiple donors, including Grand Challenges Canada and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Her work focused on implementing and testing cost-effective interventions and task-shifting approaches to enhance mental health and quality of life in resource-constrained populations. Areeba's expertise spans common mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety to more complex issues like psychosis.
Among her notable achievements, she secured independent research funding to develop a novel remote brief psychological first aid intervention for 1,800 young mothers in under-resourced areas of Pakistan, aimed at improving maternal mental health and promoting informed decisions on childhood immunisation.
These experiences have greatly prepared her for her current roles. She is working with individuals with coeliac disease to co-develop an evidence-based and theoretically informed integrated dietetic and psychological pathway to support gluten-free diet adherence, and improve wellbeing and quality of life.
She is also working with South Asian populations to investigate inequalities in antidepressant prescribing in primary care.