Actively engaging a network of key stakeholders

The Research department has continued to actively engage a range of key stakeholders throughout 23/24, nationally and regionally.

The department has attended events as speakers or presenting posters or sharing information via an interactive stall. These events include the World Autism Acceptance Day, Ethnic Minority Research Inclusion Conference, hosting a roadshow at Trust sites and hosting a charity bake sale.

Research Forum

Our annual Research Forum is aimed at staff, giving them the opportunity to come together face to face to hear about the outputs of research but also network with each other and the research department. This year as well as hearing from directly from researchers about the outputs of the research attendees participated in workshops where they can learn about writing for publication, how to support research as a manager and given time to network with each other.

Events

Sarah Cooper, Head of R&D, spoke at the NHS75 event to showcase the research lead developments for mental health across the lifetime of the NHS.

The Child Oriented Mental health Innovation Collaborative (COMIC) have teamed up with Leeds University to run a series of events around participatory methods for children’s mental health research. These interactive events have proved to be very popular with attendees and has lead to the beginnings of a skills pack, pulling together the resources shared.

Research Opportunities

As a department we also want to ensure we give a wide range of people access to research opportunities. We now have an Urdu speaking Research Assistant and have worked with the Diamonds Study research team to support translation of documents into Urdu with the help of the NIHR EMRI translational services. We have also been successful in receiving a grant from the NIHR for a project to engage asylum seekers and refugees in perinatal mental health research.

We have supported an MSc Student on a 9 month research placement from the University of Maastricht.  Katerina was based in the COMIC team and worked alongside research assistants and research fellows to gain a wide breadth of experiences in NHS research.

Using Data

We have begun to harness the power of our service user data for research, utilising the Akrivia platform within the Trust to anonymise and search patient data.  This allows us widen access to research to service users who may previously not have been given the opportunity to take part.