News

Cinema screening event celebrates M-RIC service user and carer representative involvement

M-RIC’s Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement team (PPIE) recently held a screening showcase with our Service User and Carer Representatives (SUCRs) and public advisors at the Plaza Community Cinema in Crosby.

Public members and M-RIC staff gathered at the historic art-deco style Plaza Community Cinema where they watched a documentary film featuring interviews with SUCRs and public advisors.

In the films, public members spoke passionately about their lived experiences, why they wanted to get involved in mental health research and their hopes for the future of M-RIC.

Terry Bryant, Service User and Carer Representative, commented that the films were: “A wonderful and moving display of the passion, commitment and value that SUCRs and public advisers bring to M-RIC.”

Gail Faragher, Public Engagement Research Coordinator, organised the day which also involved exhibiting public member’s art from a programme of creative workshops.

She said: “As M-RIC progresses we’re all constantly reminded of just how vital it is to put the voices of service users, carers and the wider community at the heart of our mental health research. Our screening event has been a great way to celebrate their involvement and creativity. It has been an incredibly inspiring, life-affirming occasion and it was touching to see everyone get a chance to share their stories.”

After 18 months of public members working alongside M-RIC research leads, the event gave attendees an opportunity to reflect on the impact that SUCRs and public advisors have made on our six research themes.

In M-RIC, public members are embedded in our research, offering invaluable support and insight to our researchers. We have 40 public members who are made up of 10 service user and carer representatives and 30 public advisors. Service user and carer representatives are a vital part of our research teams, attending regular meetings and taking part in planning, discussions, engagement and decision making. Public advisors are a larger pool of service users, carers, third sector representatives and members of the public with an interest in research. They support M-RIC by contributing their ideas and views on an ad hoc basis at workshops and events.

Public Advisor Alison Bryant, said: “Individual testimony and the power of lived experience shone through the screening of the M-RIC SUCR and public advisers’ films. It showcased diverse experiences, and a message of hope that M-RIC has had in uniting and empowering us to become involved in research. This has changed our lives in the process, and those of the service users of tomorrow. Through sharing our lived experience perspectives on mental health, we have shaped research in co production.”

Lesley Booth, the Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement and Participation Lead for the National Institute for Health and Care Research Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration Mental Health Mission (NIHR MH-TRC MHM) also attended the event.

Lesley said: “Visiting M-RIC and seeing how integral public members with lived experiences of mental health are in shaping its research is always inspiring and affirming. It was a privilege to be welcomed to the screening event and given the chance to hear the insightful and motivational talks from public members about both their lived experience and their hopes for M-RIC. I cannot wait to return to Liverpool and see more of the breadth and scope of M-RIC’s endeavours to shape and make a real difference within mental health research.”

Learn more about Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in M-RIC here.