Welcome to the latest newsletter email from Involvement at the Institute. 

The clocks have moved, Easter has happened (although I know anyone celebrating Orthodox Easter still has a few more weeks before ending Lent), Ramadan will be coming to an end soon with Eid al-Fitr is expected Wednesday 10th April and Passover is due towards the end of April.

Whether you are religious, spiritual or not connected to an organised faith, spring-time is a time of new beginnings. Spring is finally springing, the fields are slowly filling up with new hares and lambs and we’re getting more daylight in the evenings with us moving to British Summer Time. 

In more practical (and maybe relevant) new beginnings, the Trust’s financial year begins in April 2024 and will run until the end of March 2025. This means that if you are waiting for a PPI payment in March 2024 it may be delayed slightly by the teams carrying out the enormous task closing the year end accounts. If you have something outstanding that you haven’t received yet, then please do get in touch with me (regardless of who you have processed it with) and I can look into any delays individually. 

The Institute of Mental Health ‘PPIE facilitators and coordinators network’ is now running for 2024. This is a network with meetings every 6 – 8 weeks and the sessions are designed to help colleagues who are responsible for coordinating, facilitating and organising patient, public, service user involvement. 

This is a practical network for researchers, administrators and staff who are operating and responsible for managing PPI activities are able to speak to each other, learn from each other and understand good practices across their work. 

If you do this as part of your roles / activities and you haven’t received the details yet, please let me know and I’ll extend invitations for all the dates to you. 

If you’re not an organiser or coordinator but you’re in touch with people who are and you’d like to make sure they’re in the network getting all this information and connection to help them do their work better, please let me know their details and I can arrange to invite them.  

Also if you have any topics you think this group of people should be talking about or something you’d like this group to discuss then please do let me know and I can raise it as a topic in the group meetings.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) is responsible for protecting and promoting the interests of patients and the public in health and social care research. You can find out more about their work and what they do on their website, in their monthly newsletter HRA Latest and via their social media.

The HRA has recently published new information on public involvement requirements for its Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) applications. Researchers are required to submit applications to the CAG when they propose using confidential patient information without consent for the purpose of the research. There can be very specific circumstances for this and researchers doing this must demonstrate they are engaged in talking to public groups about their intentions to check public acceptability to their proposed research activities and patient information usage.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is advertising to recruit members of the public to join one of their research programme committees. 

The NIHR is looking for members of the public who have a broad interest in, and knowledge of, health, social care and/or improving public health and addressing health inequalities.

Anyone applying to join the committee does not need to have a scientific or research background to help shape research. They are looking for people who can bring their own experiences and knowledge to improve the research we wish to fund.

For more information about the role and how to apply you can watch a short video on becoming a public committee member and visit the public committee members page on the NIHR website. 

The deadline for submitting an application is midnight on Sunday 28 April, 2024.

If you wish to ask any questions before submitting an application, you can contact their team by email using publicrecruitment@nihr.ac.uk

Paid opportunity: Steering group for research project on sectioning from Ed Kiely of Queen Mary University of London

Would you like to set the goals for a research project on sectioning?
My name is Ed Kiely (they/them) and I am a researcher at Queen Mary University of London. I am trying to understand how sectioning creates social inequalities, and the ways it harms survivors. (Sectioning means being detained under the Mental Health Act.)

I have used mental health services, and transgender care services, in the UK and the Netherlands, and this experience informs my research. However, I haven’t been sectioned.

I am looking for people to join the steering group for my project. The steering group will meet every four months to make key decisions about the research. For instance, who should be involved? Which places should I go to? What should I look for when I am there?

To take part, you must have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. It does not matter which section you were held under. This includes being detained by the police. However, you don’t have to share your experiences to be involved. 

I am particularly keen to hear from Black people, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, LGBTQ+ people, and neurodivergent people. (One person may belong to many of these groups.)

All participants will be paid for their time at NIHR participation rates (£25 per hour). Meetings will be held online and adjustments will be made to ensure accessibility.

If you are interested or would like more information, please contact me at ed.kiely@qmul.ac.uk