Shape research

GET INVOLVED

As a patient, carer or member of our community we want you to have the opportunity to be part of research that interests you and fits your needs.

Your participation can help us shape how research is designed and carried out, and how we share the findings that come from these studies.

SHARING YOUR VIEWS

You can be part of shaping research by:

Participating in research studies.
Contributing to research design and research delivery.
Become a research champion.
Joining the Researcher Development Programme which supports staff, patients anf service users interested in learning more about research and how it can support them professionally and personally.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

CASE STUDY

Early support for young people with neurodiversity is key to helping them and their families develop crucial skills needed to live a happy, healthy, and successful life. Despite progress in the understanding of neurodiverse conditions like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) there are still cases where young people don’t get diagnosed, don’t meet diagnostic thresholds or experience long waiting times due to high demand. This can cause increased feelings of anxiety, isolation, and frustration within families.

A research project carried out in our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services designed an intervention for the combined support of schools and families. Families and young people who had experienced these challenges helped design the intervention and the research.

Zach (project lead) notes, "through public participation, I encountered unseen barriers to research, and how sometimes we can "miss the point" and steer research towards mid or low priority issues. With this revelation, I was able to start to draft out a research project ready to start as soon as possible."

To conduct research, it requires a proposal, ethical approval and participation consent and sheets which were created and reviewed by families and young people. Gaining the approval is challenging and there were many barriers to overcome but I found the involvement of families and young people incredibly useful and helped me develop explaining in lay language what the research was.