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Welcome to the latest newsletter email from Involvement at the Institute and it is a bumper edition of information, links and activities.
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I hope wherever you are in the world you are starting to feel that Spring is about to be Sprung! The clocks will be changing on the 30th of this month, allowing us to make the most of the daylight hours and maybe get a little more vitamin D into our lives. Here’s a glimpse of the sun shining on the edge of what was part of the grand Sherwood Forest!
This newsletter will be going out to a few more people than the last one which is excellent news for us all. If this is the first time, you’re receiving one of our newsletter then welcome and please do let us know about anything else you’d like to see featured. That last bit goes for everyone, new or regular visitors, we’d love to hear from you, and we’re delighted to share your news and activities too. If you have a group or a project, an event or a thing that you think fits with this community, then feel free to send me the details.
A little Communications update from our wider team: From this month, our newsletters are all on our website so if you are like me and you remember reading something and want to find it again but there’s no way you’re going into the depths of your inbox to search for it, then you can find all previous newsletters on the IMH website under involvement. Take a look and see what you think – and if there are other things you think we should be putting on our website, please get in touch. I’m here and keen to listen to all your wonderful suggestions.
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Involvement at the Institute updates:
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Our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement training programme continues for another group of attendees throughout March.
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Hopefully we will meet more interested, passionate and dedicated researchers wishing to expand their knowledge and practice in their Patient and Public Involvement work. What is great is I’m meeting lots more researchers from many different institutions around the UK and we will keep this newsletter updated with progress of training and also inviting all these trainees to join our network. By joining we will have even wider contacts and we might see more opportunities to be involved advertised through our network and this newsletter so hopefully, this will result in more of our newsletter readers having more opportunities to be involved in relevant and interesting research.
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MindTech is a national centre focusing on the development, adoption and evaluation of new technologies for mental healthcare and dementia. It is hosted by the Institute of Mental Health and brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, industry and the public.
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As part of work within MindTech they are looking to meet more individuals with lived experience of mental health and/or neurodiversity to join their Lived Experience Access to Research Network (LEARN). By joining this network, you will receive emails from MindTech and know more about their work and have access to information about opportunities to be involved with their work shaping their mental health and technology research.
You can read more about the LEARN plans and apply through their website.
If you are interested or would like to know more before signing up, you can get in touch with the team by contacting Matthew by email Matthew.Moore@nottingham.ac.uk and Matthew or someone in the team will get back in touch with you.
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A new study, led by Institute of Mental Health researchers has evidenced that patients on their research trial who need treatment for neurological and mental health disorders, would favour non-invasive neuromodulation interventions over current interventions such as pharmaceutical drugs.
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Neuromodulation involves using devices or techniques to directly influence or alter nerve activity in the brain. Neuromodulation is used in lots of different ways already in medical fields and the United Kingdom and Ireland Neuromodulation Society has a wealth of patient facing information relevant to different conditions and treatments.
Researchers are currently developing new brain interventions using this neuromodulation, for neurological and mental health disorders – such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia as well as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.
This new study, led by Marcus Kaiser of the School of Medicine, University of Nottingham and Joint Director of the Centre for Translational Neuroscience here at the Institute of Mental Health is published in Scientific Reports. The work they have done is to understand more about the public perception of neuromodulation. In an online survey with almost 800 participants, novel neuromodulation interventions were viewed positively, often more highly ranked than current clinical and medical responses to these conditions.
If you want to find out more about Marcus and the team in the Centre for Translational Neuroscience here at the Institute of Mental Health you can read more on our website.
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The Institute of Mental Health 2025 Open Arts Exhibition will showcase the talents of artists and makers, young and old, taking inspiration from the 2025 Mental Health Awareness Week theme of “Community”.
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We flourish when we have meaningful connections with others and communities that remind us, we are not alone. Communities offer a sense of belonging, security, help during tough times and give us a sense of purpose. Being part of a safe, positive community is vital for our mental health and wellbeing.
We are looking to create an exhibition of artwork that reflects the important role that communities play in our lives, and in our mental health and wellbeing.
You can use any media you like, paint, pencil, fabric, photographs, clay, wood – the limit is your imagination!
How can you enter? Submit a short description and photographs of your artwork via our online form. (Maximum two entries per artist or group) and the deadline for submissions is Wednesday 30 April 2025 at 12 noon. (Artists must be 16 years at or before Wednesday 30th April 2025)
If you are interested in submitting something, please do go ahead and give it a go. It will be lovely to see what is produced for this Community exhibition.
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National and local health, and social care and research information and events:
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For those of you local to Nottingham I wanted to share a wonderful initiative from the Wellbeing Exchange in Sherwood (suburb in the City of Nottingham rather than Sherwood constituency near Newark).
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I have attached the programme below for you all to see and if you fancy doing something different in March or April on a Saturday morning the why not give it a go. The programme is designed for people to contribute what they can to attend a session so please don’t let finances be a barrier, all are welcome!
I will also add that James Towler, who is a public contributor here at the Institute and a member of our Advisory Group will be delivering Mindfulness sessions within their programme too!
⬇️ Download the programme here
🎫 View some of their events on EventBrite
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Rights at home survey from Patients Association:
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From time to time we share surveys, links and information about other organisations because we know as people, we all have contact with more than one place, more than one experience and many of the people I talk with care for others too.
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As such I wanted to share this survey in case you wanted to share or complete the survey from your own experience.
If you have spent time in or supported someone in a care home, hospital, hospice or mental health unit at any time since 6th April 2024, Rights for Residents, Care rights UK and John's Campaign want to hear about your experiences with visiting.
John’s Campaign and Care Rights UK, along with Rights for Residents are looking to understand the experiences of anyone supporting someone in these settings so they can have a better understanding of the issues people are currently facing. If this is an experience you have had since 6th April 2024 and you would like to add your experiences and knowledge (good and bad) to the information they gather, you can find out more and fill our their survey here.
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For those of you who are carers or guardians of younger children you might be familiar with getting one word answers from every question until you sit down, side by side with some crayons, with no pressure. Then the conversations about feelings, our day, our thoughts can flow a little more freely without the pressure of eye contact.
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If you’re looking for an excuse to sit down and do some doodling together or even want 5 minutes to yourself and move away from devices then why not consider entering this competition which has been set up by Young Minds and M&S.
M&S and Young Minds have launched their Young Designer competition to design a new sweater and hoodie to go on sale at M&S to support the work of Young Minds.
There are two competitions; those aged 5–11 and those 12–16 so get those pencils sharpened and get doodling!
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The theme of the design is “What would you say to a friend who needs you?” and it can be words, doodles or pictures.
The bolder the brighter is the name of the game!
To find out more about the competition, how to enter or any rules then go to the Young Designer competition website and good luck.
Entries close at the end of March so still plenty of time to get your family creative juices (and conversations) flowing.
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I wanted to send hopes for anyone who is observing fasting during Ramadan or observing Lent at this time of the year or if you are engaged in other spiritual or humanist practices this Spring, I truly hope your endeavours are rewarded and you feel peace.
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