HEER Group for Researchers

The Help from Experts by Experience for Researchers (HEER) group is a well-established service user and carer group helping to shape research at LYPFT. We are a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group available to all people working in Mental Health research.

Please get in touch If you think that the Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust might provide a population for your research.  Or if you are just seeking general advice regarding your research in Mental Health, we are passionate about it!

The HEER group can help you shape design, improve recruitment and review the appropriateness of methods and language.  Our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group has been running since 2006.  Recent feedback on group involvement from Researchers includes:

“We made changes to language used, we discussed and used feedback to inform ideas about placement of a device and procedure in a ward intervention. We also asked the group about preferences and feelings about data collection methods (observation on wards), the feedback we received was around how to introduce this sensitively to service users on wards which may have been done differently without this advice. The HEER group also made suggestions about where the current research could lead and what might need to be done next – essentially informing future research priorities.”

“The service user / carer panel were very supportive and open with feedback, which was invaluable to further design of the project”

What we will do for you

• Use our expertise of lived and learned experience for your research project:
• We have LIVED experience of mental health.
• We have LEARNED experience, gained in both family and formal settings.
• We will review and advise you on your research project e.g. the content of your patient information sheet advise on the wording of participant materials and explore ways of sharing your results.
• We will help you develop your recruitment strategy e.g. help you explore options that might help you and share our knowledge of local groups.
• We will help you make your research project user friendly, accessible and easy to understand.
• We will treat your information confidentially and only share with your agreement.

What we would like you to do

• Please send any documents you would like us to read 10 days before the meeting if possible.
• Please try to minimize the use of jargon, acronyms and statistics when you come to the group.
• You are welcome to visit the group as often as you need.
• We would like an update on any changes you have made to your research project as a result of involving us.
• We would appreciate you returning to the group to share the results of your study.
• Please fill in our feedback form as it’s good to know if we have been effective i.e. what we have done well and useful for us to know if there are any gaps so that we can keep learning and improving.

We meet remotely once a month,  generally on the second Wednesday of the month, between 10.30 and 12.00.  Please get in touch with us via research.lypft@nhs.net with any questions or queries, we will happily find you a slot to come and talk with the group and support your research.