Hello everyone 👋

Welcome to the latest newsletter email from me at Involvement at the Institute and a Happy 2025 to you all!

[Click the image for a larger and clearer web view]

I didn’t manage to get a final newsletter of 2024 out to you all but I think it actually feels nicer to send something that looks forward to the future.

2024 has been wonderful to have you all with us this year and thank you to every single one of you who receives and reads this newsletter. Through everything going on in your lives, work, families and the rollercoaster that is life, we remain grateful that you have stayed in touch. We appreciate every moment you’ve been able to share with us and we’re very much hoping that 2025 brings the same enthusiasm.

Involvement at the Institute updates:

In 2024 we ran a Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement training programme for researchers and for the first time us doing this training, we felt it was very successful.

The development of this training came from a huge number of conversations over the last 3 years where researchers, administrators and support staff are tasked with delivering good quality patient and public involvement but aren’t provided time and experience to understand what this means from an administrative, skills and rules perspective. Our training programme included information about PPI basics such as funders and importance of language through to financial management, GDPR and lone working practices. We hope to deliver more of this training programme in 2025 and we also now hope that by developing this first level training we can now work with public representatives here at the IMH to develop public specific workshops, webinars and other important and public centred knowledge.

Watch this space!

National and local health, and social care and research information and events:

Autistica is the UK’s leading autism research and campaigning charity. The aim of Autistica is to create breakthroughs that enable all autistic people to live happier, healthier, longer lives and they seek to do this by funding research, shaping policy and working with autistic people to make more of a difference.

Here in Public Involvement at the Institute of Mental Health we do not have any current work with Autistica, however we wanted to share with you the new Autistica Tips Hub which has been designed as a free app with and for autistic people, their families and professionals who work with autistic people.

Autistica says “Autistic people have told us that searching for reliable information about autism online can be overwhelming. That's why we've created the Tips Hub. We’ve gathered expert reviews and advice on where to look for further reading all in one place. The Tips Hub will guide you to the best sources on a range of topics directly relevant to autistic people.”

You can find out more about Autistica as a charity and their app by following the embedded links in this update or heading to their home page on the internet.

The Health Research Authority has recently been writing more about their Public Involvement and specifically their intentions when it comes to taking time for meaningful involvement.

You can read more about it in their blog by Becky Purvis, their Director of Policy and Partnerships.

If you haven’t already, you can also sign up to receive the HRA newsletters and see what they are doing in 2025!

Opportunities to be involved in services and research:

Researchers at The University of Oxford want to understand the impact of watching a video about peoples’ experience of understanding hearing voices as part of their wider social identity.

As such they are looking for PARTICIPANTS to take part in their research and contribute to the data of their research. This is not a PPI or INVOLVEMENT opportunity but a PARTICIPANT opportunity. Therefore, there will be no scope to be involved with the research team however if this is an experience that you understand personally and you would like to participate in their research, please do get in touch.

They hope this will help us to understand hearing voices, identity, and wellbeing better, and inform future interventions aiming to help people come to terms with hearing voices.

Location: Online study

Person specification:

18 years or over
Live in the UK
Experience of hearing voices that other people don’t

Task: This is an online study which can be completed anonymously here. Or you can book a Microsoft Teams call if you’d prefer to complete it with a researcher present to help. Taking part will involve answering some questionnaires about your identity and mental health, watching a short video, and completing some brief follow-up questions after watching. It is expected it will take about 20 minutes to complete.

Payment: As this is being completed as part of a Clinical Psychology doctorate, there is a limited budget and they are not able to pay people.

Contact: Please contact roisin.quinn@hmc.ox.ac.uk if you have any questions or for more information.

@hearingvoicesoxford

Deadline: 30th March 2025

And finally...

I wanted to share a belated well done to one of our public contributors (and Nottingham wide volunteer) Laura-Jayne Lee for her fundraising efforts in 2024. Laura took on the challenge of training for and taking part in an MMA fight in November 2024 (for those uninitiated to this sport it is Mixed Martial Arts and a combination of different sports flighting styles). If you’re not aware, Mixed Martial Arts is a sports style that requires an incredible amount of training. Laura has worked hard, brought motivation and a positive mindset to her training and I am in awe of Laura’s efforts to do this. She also worked hard in her fundraising efforts and managed to raise funds for MIND in the process.

A massive well done to Laura for all her efforts in 2024, I hope she is still feeling very proud of her achievements!

So if like Laura you’re thinking of taking on a challenge, or setting some new challenges for yourself this year (it doesn’t have to be ferociously fighting in a cage) then believe in yourself, because whether it’s going into town more, using the bus, adding more steps or following in the footsteps of our very own Cannonball Lee, you are amazing!

Until next time,

Kate