Justin C Yang
I study what happens to people whose needs fall between services: who is identified, who reaches treatment or support, and who falls through the gaps, and why this differs between groups and places. An autistic child's support is split between school and the NHS; someone with psychosis who also uses drugs moves between mental health and addiction services. Each service sees only part of the picture.
I am a psychiatric epidemiologist and Senior Research Fellow in the UCL Division of Psychiatry, and an Associate Editor of Addiction.
Research
I follow this question in three areas, each built over several years through a series of studies. See Research for more detail.
School and health
How schools and health services identify and support autistic and other neurodivergent children, and what follows for school attendance, exclusion, and hospital admission.
Key finding: recorded autism incidence among more than 7 million pupils in England differed sharply between social and ethnic groups and between areas (Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2022; joint first author). A 2026 OECD report cites it.
Projects: HOPE-SEN, ADR UK fellowship (2024 to 2026), on school absence, exclusion, and hospital admission among neurodivergent pupils.
Mental health and addiction services
Who reaches treatment for drug and alcohol problems, particularly people who also have a mental illness, and what stands in the way.
Key findings: national US studies of unmet need for mental health treatment and of access to opioid treatment (2019 and 2020; first author), and, in England, a study of mental health diagnoses and deprivation as predictors of access to opioid treatment (2023).
Projects: UNITED, NIHR Team Science award (2026), on what England's national treatment data can show about who reaches treatment; evaluation of an anti-stigma course for health and care staff, NIHR (2026).
Health and social care in severe mental illness
Treatment, harms, and inequalities for people with severe mental illness, in hospital and in the community, including the support recorded outside the NHS.
Key finding: antipsychotic polypharmacy was associated with endocrine and metabolic adverse drug reactions among 13,391 patients (Psychological Medicine, 2023; joint first author).
Projects: WISDOM, UKRI fellowship (2026 to 2029), on the social and emotional drivers of severe mental illness; enhanced patient observation on psychiatric wards, NIHR (2024 to 2028); linking health and social care data, NIHR (from 2027).
Recent
- October 2026 Elected to UCL Academic Board. Funding awarded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research for a study of linking health and social care data, in which I co-lead a work package.
- September 2026 Written evidence to the House of Commons Education Committee on persistent school absence among autistic pupils and pupils with intellectual disability, with Vanessa Cieplinska and Professor Vasiliki Totsika.
- 2026 Scoping review of 83 research outputs using England's National Drug Treatment Monitoring System, from UNITED (preprint; under review).
- January 2026 WISDOM began: a UKRI Mental Health Platform fellowship linking the Complex Emotions, DATAMIND, and Social Health hubs.
How I work
Following people across services usually means bringing together records that each service keeps separately, in ways the public can trust. Since 2019 I have helped run the research database of what is now North London NHS Foundation Trust, now as Deputy Lead, and I sit on the Health Research Authority’s Confidentiality Advisory Group, which advises on when confidential patient information can be used without consent.
Working together
MINDSET is the name of my research group: the postdoctoral researchers whose research I direct day to day, and the doctoral students I co-supervise. See Team. I collaborate with academic groups, NHS trusts, treatment providers, and people with lived experience.
I welcome conversations about research on people whose needs span education, health, addiction, and social care services, and about doctoral supervision. Get in touch.