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

It’s now September 2024 and I hope you’re all having an opportunity to breath in some fresh, warm air and dry out those socks from the never-ending April (to July) showers. Although as I write this I have just had to chase down the family trampoline and I’m feeling the brunt of Storm Lillian so I hope you’re all a bit less windswept!

Traditionally August is a quiet month in universities and August 2024 has been no exception. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy behind the scenes in the Institute of Mental Health. As you may know we work with both Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Nottingham (as well as other organisations from time to time) and we are busy preparing for new students on PhD programmes, colleagues looking to submit applications for grant funding or thinking of new topics they’d like to discuss with public and patient advisors with a view to future research. 

One thing we are directly working on here in Involvement is a new training programme aimed specifically at researchers who are looking to start developing their own work in patient and public involvement in their research. 

We will be able to tell you more about this as time goes by, but we are hoping by becoming an accredited trainer in this area we can open more doors and have more opportunities for public contributors, involvement partners and lived experience advisors and researchers to get involved in research.

Use My Data

Have you ever heard of Use My Data? Well I hadn’t until recently either and I came across them as a patient led movement in the UK focused on the use of patient data to save lives and improve outcomes. If you would like to hear more about them or join their movement then you can see more on their website Use My Data. They will be holding a face-to-face conference in June next year (2025) in Leeds and you can sign up to hear more about this from them directly. 

I know many research projects and people I work with talk about the appropriate, helpful and consented use of patient data so if this is a topic that interests you, do take a look. 

They have also produced a researcher version of this guide which is located on their website. You are very welcome to read this too and do also share with any researchers or academic people you are working with if they want to see what the latest NIHR guidance is. 

It’s important to recognise that whilst the NIHR is not a national body setting rules and legislation on this topic, they have been, as a national funder of PPI for more than 2 decades, they are frequently seen as a leader in many payment and process conversations.

The report is based on work they carried out asking over 400 people about their experiences of health and social care research. The aim of the initial project was to find out what researchers should do to make sure people, either taking part in clinical research or likely to benefit from clinical research, are the focus of the work. 

You can read more about the project and their report on their website.

The East Midlands Adult Secure Care Services involvement team known as IMPACT and the Positive Support Group are now recruiting to Experts by Experience roles. 

Experts by Experience will be invited to offer a different perspective as part of care treatment reviews. The ‘Experts by Experience’ team are actively seeking new people who can become part of the Experts by Experience group to do reviews and attend meetings. To be an Expert by Experience you will need to have experience of mental health services, It is a paid position and you can choose how much and how often you would like to work.

For more information see the poster in this link or contact Sharon Lock on 07496 803279 or by email using Sharon.Lock@positivesupportgroup.com 

Young Minds have once again opened their Writers Programme. 

The time between me writing this and their deadline is very tight however if this is something that interests you, please don’t be put off. Get in touch with them to find out how quickly you can apply or even their next window. 

If you are a younger person (usually a term we use to describe 25 years old and below) and interested in sharing your experiences or writing about mental health experiences then do have a look at both the Blogger Pool and the Writers Programme.

You can find out more on the YoungMinds website.