News Service users, carers and public advisors celebrate completing introductory research course
More than 20 service users, carers and public advisors have been provided with comprehensive training to ensure they have the confidence, skills and understanding to work side-by-side with researchers at the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC).
The 8-day bespoke course, designed by the University of Manchester, provided a useful introduction to research and research processes. It covered different types of reviews and methodologies in research, how we analyse and evaluate results, and the value of co-production in research design.
The final session focused on how they can apply their lived experience in M-RIC’s work and it involves the participants discussing their priorities for M-RIC. Themes included improving mental health services for children and young people and early intervention services.
M-RIC service user and carer representatives are people with lived experience who have been recruited to formal roles within our research teams. They provide their views on current and forthcoming projects and have an equal say in the decision-making process. Public advisors support our work on a less frequent basis on research activities and events. They include service users, carers, third sector representatives and wider members of the public.
Terry Bryant, Service User and Carer Representative said:
Many institutions, bodies and projects liberally employ the term ‘PPIE’ (patient and public involvement and engagement) but far fewer know actually how to enable PPIE to function on a practical level, and also have the commitment and means to do so e.g. time, effort, money etc.
“This is where M-RIC stand out with their attention to detail and their focus on meaningful engagement and interaction with the very diverse group of service users and carer representatives, and public advisers.
“Through training and support sessions, the voice of the public contributors is not only heard but validated by the academics and professionals in M-RIC. In turn, this is creating the best environment for productive collaboration and co-production which ultimately could generate outcomes which will demonstrably improve healthcare.
M-RIC service user and carer representatives and public advisors receive their certificates
Gail Faragher, Public Engagement Research Coordinator added:
I want to extend my gratitude to the EQUIP team at the University of Manchester who have supported us to run this bespoke training course. We are delighted that so many of our service users, carers and public members have completed it. It shows our continued commitment as a research centre to ensuring the voice of our service users, carers and people in our wider communities is central to our work.
Blog – M-RIC Public Advisor Dr Robert MacDonald
Dr Robert MacDonald receiving his certificate
Dr Robert MacDonald was one of the recipients of the training. Here he describes one of the sessions on co-production and collaboration. The session was led by Dr Andy Grundy and research students from the University of Manchester with involvement from community interest company Made by Mortals.
Dr Andy Grundy introduced the workshop and referred to examples of the levels and stages of service user involvement in research which can be found in The Handbook of Service User Involvement in Mental Health Research (2009), pages 25-35.
The objective of the co-production and collaborative workshop was to highlight the importance of people’s lived experience and the many unrepresentative voices of the community which includes people with mental health challenges, learning difficulties, autism, the South Asian population and many other silent and seldom heard people.
The workshop questioned the nature of research collaboration, partnerships, stakeholder research, authority and the power dynamics of collaboration vs co-production and faux production.
The workshop examined how can the impact of co-production be assessed individually and through group projects. It also looked at how co-production can be reported in terms of aims, methods, outcome, results, discussion, conclusions, reflections and the importance of taking a critical perspective.
In conclusion, we learned that co-production is a more direct (as opposed to a collaborative approach) of working together with service users, carers and providers to reach a collective outcome based on the principle that people are an asset with diverse capabilities. It’s based on the principle that co-production can have two-way reciprocal and peer support and it blurs the boundaries between academics and the community.
The involvement of ‘Made by Mortals’ facilitated eliciting lived experiences and encouraged public involvement using immersive creative processes including podcasts, films, music, creative shows and a mix of unique community participants.
It was an enjoyable and informative session.
Acknowledgements
- Dr Andy Grundy, The University of Manchester
- Gail Faragher, M-RIC / University of Liverpool
- Jahanara Miah, M-RIC / Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust