The Count Me In team man a stand at the Mersey Care Annual General Meeting. The team are pictured in Count Me in t-shirts and stood next to Count Me in banners.

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‘Count Me In’ set to widen research participation


Working in partnership with the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC), Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is preparing to roll out Count Me In which will enable more patients and service users to know about research activities.

Count Me In is an innovative system that will make it easier for patients and service users in Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust to be contacted about various research activities that are relevant to them. By increasing the number of patients and service users involved in research, it will help us improve future care and treatments.

This change means researchers no longer have to heavily rely on clinicians to approach people individually – authorised Mersey Care staff such as researchers can reach more people who may be eligible for research across Mersey Care’s services. This is about giving service users and patients the opportunity to know of research opportunities.

The Count Me In system and the computer-based Trusted Research Environment (TRE) used to store patients’ records is governed by the same strict confidentiality and privacy rules as medical records. The TRE is a highly secure and Mersey Care controlled computing environment that allows approved researchers a safe way to access, store and analyse sensitive data relevant to their research. Data protection protocols are strictly followed, and information is only shared with consent.

Mersey Care patients and service users have the option to opt out of the Count Me In system at any time.

Find out more about Count Me In which will officially launch later this year at www.merseycare.nhs.uk/count-me-in.

 

The Count Me In roll out begins

Gallery of images from the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Annual General Meeting – 25 September 2024