Developing partnerships for mental health research

1
Developing partnerships for mental health
research

• Training workshops for service users, carers,
  workers and researchers
• Kris Atkin
• Christine Blayney
• Louise Bryant

Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural
Sciences
2
Why we ran the workshops

• Belief in the importance of service user
  involvement
• Capacity building
• involve service users and carers in future
  research in the Unit
• develop networks
• provide training in the research process

3
Funding

• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
  seminar series grant
• Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural
  Sciences

4
Participants

• Who
• Mental health service users / survivors
• carers
• workers (paid or voluntary)
• researchers
• How we advertised
• Local voluntary groups
• Mental Health Trust

5
Development and Facilitation

• Alison Faulkner (consultant)
• expert by experience
• experience of user-led research
• prior research training workshops
• Academic unit staff
• Research experience
• Teaching experience

6
Course content (1)

• The research process (5 workshops)
• Background to service user and carer involvement
  in research
• Beginning a research project
• How to answer research questions (research
  methods)
• Turning research findings into change
• Moving forward

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Course content (2)

• Workshop speakers users or carers with
  experience of involvement in research
• Developing public involvement in research (Direct
  Impact SWYMHT)
• Partnership working in self-harm research
  (Louise Pembroke)
• Evaluating assertive outreach in Lincolnshire
  (Julie Repper, Sylvia Minshull, Su Hodgson)
• User focussed monitoring and change (Jon Fowler,
  Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health)
• The future for user led research (Peter
  Beresford, Brunel University)

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Attendance

• 1st workshop
• 11 service users
• 4 carers
• 12 workers
• Other workshops average 22
• More workers than users or carers dropped out

9
Money

• Grant of 11,500 from ESRC
• Average cost of each workshop 2,300 (excluding
  AU staff costs)
• Travel/childcare expenses
• 15 for attendance
• Venue catering
• Consultant/Trainer
• Stationery for training packs

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Evaluation

• Participant feedback forms after each workshop
• Return rate 68-78
• Mostly positive about course content
• increased knowledge about research
• found talks understandable
• didnt find workshops stressful or intimidating
• Negative comments about noisy venue

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Christine Blayney

• What did I learn from them as a service user and
  what did they do for me?

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Lessons learned

• Venue
• to be quiet
• breakout rooms for group discussions
• Consultant trainers
• more than one person for each workshop
• Recruitment
• open up to researchers
• try to increase carer attendance

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What happened afterwards?

• Research interest group (UCRIG)
• Dissemination
• seminar for Academic unit
• article submitted to Psychiatric Bulletin
• this presentation!
• Research projects involving users
• self harm and advocacy
• action research role of SUIT
• doctor/patient communication