News ‘Moved and inspired’ by Tim Nicholls’ visit to M-RIC
The implementation lead for the UK’s Mental Health Mission praised the progress made by M-RIC after a visit to the centre’s Liverpool headquarters.
Tim Nicholls, who stepped into the lead role two months ago, said he found inspiring, M-RIC’s vision of connecting science, service, users and society in a collaborative approach to drive innovations in mental health treatment options. In particular, he highlighted the central role of service users and carers in M-RIC.
Tim said: “My visit has left me with a lot of optimism about the work being carried out by M-RIC and the other research centres involved in the UK Mental Health Mission and how we can develop new treatment options for the benefit of people using mental health services.
“For example, I think we are on the cusp of significant changes in which data and digitalisation will be key in driving areas of new innovations. I am personally excited about the impact of artificial intelligence and how it might be used for the benefit of people using services, for their outcomes and their lives.”
The M-RIC team provided an update on their six work themes and the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Team described the recruitment of service user and carer representatives to work alongside researchers in each theme.
M-RIC Co-Director Professor Iain Buchan said; “I was moved and inspired by our conversations with Tim Nicholls, whose personal story includes experience as a carer as well as a trans-disciplinary career through law, local authority social care and the NHS – giving him a systems view of mental health.
“It has left me thinking that we should redouble M-RIC efforts to fill the population mental health or mental health systems gap in the national mental health research portfolio managed by the NIHR Mental Health Translational Research Collaboration (TRC).
“There is currently no TRC Theme covering this vital area of integrating public services to make the whole of mental health care greater than its sum of parts. It is arguably one of the most important things an integrated health and social care system can do for the population.”
M-RIC has been created through a partnership of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool with funding from NIHR and the Office for Life Sciences, as part of the Government’s Mental Health Mission.