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4 2018
Co-production in Research: Barriers and Solutions
By Vanessa Pinfold
Here at the McPin Foundation, we are pleased to support the third year of the Social Care Institute for Excellence’ (SCIE) co-production week and its focus on learning. This year has seen the introduction of co-production in research principles from INVOLVE.
Read More11 2018
Maternal mental health peer support
The NHS has recently announced it will be committing an extra £1.6million to help mothers with mental health issues during or after pregnancy. With maternal mental health problems affecting up to a fifth of all women, research has shown that peer support can help mums receive the emotional and practical support needed during this time.
Read More11 2018
Involving young people in research – why it matters
This week we released our second Right People, Right Questions national survey looking at the top ten questions people think are most important for researchers to answer about young people’s mental health. Rachel Temple reflects on the importance of making sure the views of young people are heard and on how McPin is making sure young people help shape this research project.
Read More11 2018
Virtual Reality and psychosis
Many people find social situations difficult. This includes people with psychosis. Virtual Reality (VR) may be able to help some overcome this, and the immersive worlds created by VR technology are now convincing enough (and affordable enough) to be used in psychology therapy.
Read More30 2018
Macmillan Peer Evaluator Training
Brighton September – October 2017 and May 2018
Co-design and co-delivery are part of the ethos of the McPin Foundation. We have just completed our second successful three-day training for Peer Evaluators with Macmillan cancer support. Running the training a second time gave us the freedom to improve and develop materials and content from the first time around.
Read More23 2018
Object-based storytelling can help start a conversation about mental health.
Object-based storytelling can help start a conversation about mental health.A pop-up exhibition by the Soul Relics Museum in mental health awareness week aimed to do just that, start conversations about mental health, using photographs of a wide range of
objects that have held special significance to their owners during times of distress.
15 2018
Interviewing Peter Fonagy
A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to interview Peter Fonagy as part of the #LetsTalkMentalHealth series by Louise Arseneault. Peter is a renowned clinical psychologist specialising in early attachment disorder and borderline personality disorder and CEO of the Anna Freud centre.
Read More11 2018
Mental Health Awareness Week 2018: are awareness dates useful for mental health?
Stress is a normal bodily response, but is usually considered a negative feeling. Stress is a major factor in survival and is an important part of the ‘flight or fight response’, which makes us react to dangerous situations such as moving out of the way of a reversing car.
Read More27 2018
Soul Relics Museum
The Soul Relics Museum project will be having a pop-up exhibitions in the SGDP for a month from 16th April – 20th May 2018
The Soul Relics Museum collects photographs of objects which relate to a time of personal struggle with mental wellbeing.
Read More4 2018
Words That Carry On: Lindsay’s Fund
On Saturday afternoon (24/3/2018) I went by bus across London to the memorial service of an amazing person I had never met, but wish I had. Lindsay Riddoch, who died on the eve of her 25th Birthday – late December 2017 – when she ended her life and her battle with mental health issues.
20 2018
When two cultures collide: The reality of being British Asian
Disclaimer: this blog post is an exploration of mental health issues within the south Asian community, and is not intended to disregard the positives of being British Asian.
Racial discrimination is an issue that manifests in multiple ways and affects most people of BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) background.
12 2018
Psychosis and the Mortality Gap
Did you know that people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar or psychosis have a life expectancy lower than twenty years compared to the general population? This is a shocking statistic and more needs to be done to support the physical health needs of this group of people.
Mental Health Policy & Strategy
15 2018
Social Anxiety: More than Shyness
Before Christmas, Radio presenter Iain Lee discussed his experiences of mental health difficulties on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here. In particular, he talked about how living with social anxiety affects his daily interactions, especially in groups of people.
Read More8 2018
Developing peer support in the community: A toolkit
We have a new toolkit to use, launched in early December by Mind based upon work carried out by an evaluation team I know well at the McPin Foundation and St George’s, University of London. They had spent 2 years evaluating the Side by Side community peer support programme initiated by Mind and funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
15 2017
Our Yearly Round Up
McPin will be marking its 5 year anniversary in our current form. Before this the charity had no members of staff. It was essentially a grant making charity. The most important aspect of our work is working alongside people with mental health problems as colleagues, advisors and friends of the charity.
Read More15 2017
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Insomnia
A good night’s sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle. Several years ago, I was involved in writing a report for Mental Health Awareness Week, based on findings from the Great British Sleep Survey. The report argued that insomnia and poor sleep were public health concerns.
Read More7 2017
A framework for mental health research – what next?
We have been involved over the past 18 months in the development of a 10 year strategy for mental health research in the UK. Developing such a strategy was one of the recommendations in the 2016 Five Year Forward View for Mental Health report.
4 2017
INVOLVE at 21
Last week we attended a public involvement conference organised by INVOLVE. INVOLVE was originally set up by the Department of Health in 1996. It remains one of the oldest Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) organisations in the world. We had a stand promoting our own work championing expertise from experience in mental health research.
6 2017
Bipolar research – working together to decide which outcomes matter.
When researchers are developing a study that involves a trial in order to compare treatment A to treatment B, they need to decide on what outcomes to measure. Often this is through a series of questionnaires with research participants and sometimes through tests like measuring weight, blood tests or saliva samples.
1 2017
Managing stress: It’s personal
Today is International Stress Awareness Day, I thought I’d share my personal ways of coping with stress and highlight while there are underlying themes to some of these coping techniques, the exact measure we employ are likely to be personal to our own preferences.
25 2017
Friends in Europe: A mental health conference with a difference
A warm welcome awaited me when I arrived at the European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation (more commonly referred to as ENMESH) recently. ENMESH develops and maintains a network of active researchers in mental health service research in Europe. I met service users and carers, junior researchers, professors and international policy experts.
Read More16 2017
Sweating it out for mental health research
Kat Berry, Operations Manager at the McPin Foundation talks to us about her 30 DAY hot yoga challenge and why she’s raising money for mental health research.
Where did the idea to do hot yoga for 30 days come from?
I’ve always wanted to do the 30 day challenge but I have always found an excuse not to – either the time commitment or just the fear of knowing how tough it was going to be held me back.
Read More10 2017
Workplace wellbeing: a no-brainer?
Taking steps to enhance wellbeing in the workplace seems like a no-brainer. It can improve productivity, create happy teams and generally make Monday mornings feel worth getting out of bed for. If you are contending with mental health problems, it can make finding your workplace ‘zen’ even more pressing yet, unfortunately, harder to achieve.
5 2017
Another step forward – Research into wellbeing networks
The places we go, the things we like to do and the people we know all play an important contribution to our wellbeing. Yet, this is not a key focus of current clinical mental health interventions. We are hoping our research will change this.
Read More27 2017
Are Coercion and Co-Production Compatible?
I was fortunate to attend a very stimulating seminar entitled ‘Co-production in Coercive Environments’ on 6th July 2017 at the University of Huddersfield. The key question for the seminar was the possibility, or impossibility, of co-production in the conditions of detention under the Mental Health Act (MHA).
25 2017
Refugee and migrant inclusion in community mental health project evaluation
Refugees and migrants experience poorer mental health outcomes compared to native-born populations. This can be due to traumatic experiences of persecution or dangerous journeys to the UK as well as stresses of adapting to a new environment including social isolation, language barriers, and various forms of discrimination.
7 2017
Being a part of the Right People, Right Questions ‘Young People’s Advisory Group’.
Before becoming involved in any of the McPin Foundation’s work, I had originally held a position on the NHS Hertfordshire Young Peoples Mental Health Council. I was actively involved in a process which enabled those at the “bottom” (the service user or carer) unlike those in top positions (the clinician and institutional researcher) to have a voice in transforming the way we treat and understand young people’s mental health.
Read More7 2017
Social media: The next big thing in research?
With the boom of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the use of social media in research has received much attention in recent years. As some of our keen-eyed followers may have noticed, we’ve been using social media to spread the word about a survey as part of the Right People, Right Questions project.
Read More30 2017
Everyone’s business: research councils unite on mental health
Last week, the UK research councils published their agenda for working in partnership on mental health research. For me, it is interesting to see how mental health has united all seven research councils, not just the traditional “key players” like the Medical Research Council (MRC, who have their own mental health research strategy) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
17 2017
Men’s mental health: Research into online stress support for men
Research consistently finds that men are less likely than women to reach out for support for their mental health, or even recognise it as a problem. In June 2016, The Men’s Health Forum created ‘Beat Stress Online’ to offer an anonymous and confidential chat support and signposting service for men experiencing difficulties with mental health such as stress, anger and depression.
Read More2 2017
Evaluating the Side by Side peer support programme
Over the last 2 years the McPin foundation has been working with St Georges University of London and the London School of Economics to evaluate the Side by Side programme of peer support. Funded by the Big Lottery and delivered by a collaboration between Mind, Bipolar UK and a number of smaller organisations, it aimed to make peer support available to people across nine regions in England.
2 2017
Finding the right people to ask the right questions: new survey on young people’s mental health
What do we really know about young people’s mental health? We know it’s a big issue. Around 1 in 10 young people have experienced a mental health difficulty. Around 75% of people with a mental health problem start developing it before the age of 181.
Children, young people and families
Collaborating with people with lived experience
2 2017
Research in the News
When we wrote our last ‘Research in the News’ update in early April the General Election was not even in prospect. It’s fair to say that there has been a lot of news since. The jury is still out on the impact it will have on mental health research.
Mental Health Policy & Strategy
27 2017
RideLondon 2018 – ride for Mental Health research!
Are you up for a challenge? Do you want to raise money for life-saving mental health research? McPin has places for RideLondon 2018 and we would love for you to join our team. Over the last three years our riders have raised thousands of pounds to support life-saving mental health research, and had great fun doing it.
18 2017
“Good Work” and good mental health
Our jobs are central to many of our lives. They provide us with money; but also social interaction, an identity, a sense of worth or value. It is not surprising that our work and our mental health are often inter-connected. Generally unemployment is bad for your mental health.
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
13 2017
“The question is not if patients should be remunerated, but how”
This recent BMJ blog explores the topic of paying patients to advise on health research, policy and service design. I was surprised to discover that there was still a debate about whether to pay patients or not!
The question of whether to pay people who bring ‘expertise from experience’ to research is nothing new.
Read More30 2017
Why I’m doing Ride London to support Mental Health Research
Our policy manager Ian writes about why he is doing RideLondon, and the special challenges of doing it whilst in recovery from anorexia.
‘You are MAD…’
That was my Mum’s response to the news that I am doing RideLondon 100 mile bike ride at the end of July.
Read More25 2017
Using Lived Experience in Evaluating Mental Health Peer Support
This essay was originally published as the afterword to the early research findings of the evaluation of the Side by Side programme. In it the researchers who used their lived experience of mental health problems and peer support whilst working on the evaluation reflect on how including that expertise from experience strengthened the research.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
19 2017
Manifesto Commitments To Mental Health Research Are Great – Action Will Be Even Better.
We have reached the stage of the General Election were the main parties have published their manifestos and charities check whether their issues have made the cut. When the election was called we worked with the Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders to send a joint letter to all the parties setting out the case for including mental health research in their manifestos (read it here).
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
10 2017
Thriving or surviving? Our work on personal wellbeing network mapping to help people thrive #MHAW17
This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme ‘Thriving or Surviving?’ is a reminder that good mental health and wellbeing is about more than the absence of a mental health problem, but the opportunity to live a full and meaningful life. This means more than simply ‘getting by’, or managing symptoms of mental distress, but supporting people to thrive and flourish – develop positive resources for mental health such as resilience, social support, and a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.
Read More12 2017
Our Evaluation News
Over the last few weeks we’ve been giving our website a bit of a spring clean. As part of that we’ve added a new page showcasing the work we do for partner organisations including our work on evaluations. This is a growing part of what we do, helping other organisations to understand what impact their work is having and how it can be improved.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
7 2017
Depression: Let’s Talk (About How We Talk About It)
Today (7 April) is World Health Day, organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO). They have picked the theme of “Depression: Let’s Talk”.
It would be easy to be cynical. Yet another campaign about talking about mental health. Between Time to Talk Day and the new HeadsTogether campaign it feels like we are not short of people urging us to open up about our mental wellbeing.
Read MoreInclusion and combating stigma
5 2017
The glass ceiling of Patient and Public Involvement
In his first blog for us our new Head of Research and Evaluation Dan Robotham explains one of the reasons he decided to join McPin.
Health and social care research has a good public image. Polls suggest that university-based researchers are trusted by up to 90% of the public (Ispos Mori, 2014).
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
23 2017
Why we should include everyone and everywhere in mental health research
Our new policy briefing Everywhere and Everyone Included? describes the wide disparities in the research activity of NHS mental health trusts in England. This is despite the government’s commitments to create a “culture of innovation and research that is embedded at every level” of the NHS, with a “workforce that embraces research and innovation”.
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
16 2017
“Yes, and” – mental health research funding needs both better evidence and better public and patient involvement
Ian examines a call for a new ’empirical’ approach to mental health research funding, and finds that the voice of people affected by mental health problems seems to be missing.
The Lancet Psychiatry published a comment piece last week arguing that in a ‘post-truth era’ mental health research funders should adopt a more ‘empirical’ approach to their work [requires registration].
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
9 2017
Run for McPin in Vitality London 2017
The McPin Foundation is looking for runners to take part in Vitality London 10k, to raise money for life-saving mental health research. The event takes places on 29th May 2017, and we would love for you to join us!
Read More13 2017
Thrive Employment Survey
Thrive London is a citywide movement for mental health supported by the Mayor of London, the London Health Board, and the Greater London Authority. They want to find out how to better support people with their mental health at work, and also how to help people with mental health problems find work.9 2017
Reacting to the Prime Minister’s speech on Mental Health
Today’s speech by the Prime Minister on mental health is important, but delivering her promises will need a new commitment to evidence and research.
My conclusion on mental health policy in 2016 was that we should see it as a glass half full.
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
6 2017
Lived experiences in research – opportunities and problems
The roles of a therapist and a research interviewer have different goals, but both involve personal conversations. And both challenge us to think about how we use our lived experience to facilitate the conversation, how it may affect what is said to us and how we interpret that.
Read More4 2017
Expertise from Experience in Peer Review – Dolly’s Experience
Earlier in the year MHRUK asked for our help in reviewing applications for three PhD Studentships. They wanted to strengthen the peer review process by including reviewers who could contribute their expertise from experience. We asked Gary, Dolly and Ryan to reflect on their experience of acting as reviewers, and we publish their blogs here.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
4 2017
Expertise from Experience in Peer Review – Gary’s experience
Earlier in the year MHRUK asked for our help in reviewing applications for three PhD Studentships. They wanted to strengthen the peer review process by including reviewers who could contribute their expertise from experience. We asked Gary, Dolly and Ryan to reflect on their experience of acting as reviewers, and we publish their blogs here.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
4 2017
Expertise from Experience in Peer Review – Ryan’s Experience
Earlier in the year MHRUK asked for our help in reviewing applications for three PhD Studentships. They wanted to strengthen the peer review process by including reviewers who could contribute their expertise from experience. We asked Gary, Dolly and Ryan to reflect on their experience of acting as reviewers, and we publish their blogs here.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
16 2016
Research in 2016
To mark the end of 2016, we’re taking a look back at some of what the McPin team has learned over the past year.
Collaborating with people with lived experience
16 2016
Mental health policy and research in 2016 – a glass half full?
At McPin we know that research and evidence are vital to improving the lives of people affected by mental health problems. But research does not take place in a vacuum. Decisions about what questions are seen as relevant, and what research (and how much) is funded are driven by people and how they respond to events in the outside world such as Brexit.
Mental Health Policy & Strategy
16 2016
Reflections on Patient and Public involvement (PPI) at McPin in 2016
This year has seen the expansion of our mental health science theme of work. We have engaged with scientists developing new treatments and testing them in research studies. Are these treatments that patients want? What are the ethical considerations of developing the treatment?
16 2016
McPin Methods
The 30th of November saw the first of what we will hope will be a series of methods workshops. It brought together over 70 researchers to discuss how to integrate ‘lived experience expertise in mental health research teams’. The event was massively oversubscribed and if the fact that we had to cut short discussions before we were physically kicked out of the venue is any guide, it succeeded in its aim of stimulating debate and the sharing of ideas.
Collaborating with people with lived experience
2 2016
Power, Capital & Control: Co-production in research
The subject of power and control within the field of social research has long held a fascination for me. Professionally as a social researcher; as a participant in social research; and finally as disability rights activist for the past 10 years.
Read More2 2016
Using your lived experience as a researcher, “both a Blessing and a Curse”
Richard Currie is a researcher who is working with McPin on a number of projects that make use of both his research skills and his expertise from experience. In this brief video produced for our PPI in research week he talks with Rose about how he does this.
Read More2 2016
Who is a Peer Anyway?
In this blog Rajvi reflects on the nature of the ‘peer’ in peer research. It is the latest in a series of personal reflections by McPin researchers on the use of lived experience of mental health problems in research published as part of our week on Patient and Public Involvement in Research.
Read More1 2016
Public and patient involvement in research. Why not?
Thomas Kabir introduces the latest in our series of Talking Point papers: ‘Public Involvement in Research, Why Not’? by Kirsten Morgan. Our occasional series of Talking Point papers encourage people to consider key issues in mental health research, and provides a platform for their personal views.
Read More1 2016
First thoughts from the first #McPinMethods Workshop
Yesterday afternoon saw the first of our methods workshops on ‘integrating lived experience expertise in mental health research teams’. The event was massively oversubscribed. If the fact that we had to cut short discussions before we were physically kicked out of the venue is any guide it succeeded in its aim of stimulating debate and the sharing of ideas.
Read More28 2016
Who are the ‘Experts by Experience’ in Mental Health Research? – A personal reflection
Before Laura left the McPin Foundation in the summer to begin a PhD she wrote this blog exploring some of the issues about how we use our lived experience of mental health problems as researchers, and the labels we use as an organisation.
Read More28 2016
What do we mean by patient and public involvement in research?
Our charity is on a mission to improve the mental health of communities everywhere – through research. We obviously can’t do this alone, and thus collaborate with many others who share our goals. In the last three years, since we established our staffed research unit, we have seen some progress with the value and role of research being given greater prominence.
Read More18 2016
Mental Health and Bullying – do we need to help teachers help children who are bullied?
This week (14th-20th of November) is anti-bullying week. Bullying has an undeniable and immediate impact on young people’s mental health. But we also need to think about how we equip teachers not just to help children who are bullied immediately, but to also reduce the long-term impact on their mental health.
Read MoreChildren, young people and families
11 2016
Is Scouting really the answer to mental wellbeing?
As a former Scout (and Cub Scout) with a history of mental health problems my eye was naturally drawn to the headlines declaring that ‘Scouts and Guides provide ‘mental health boost for life’. Yet again I am the exception to the rule!
Read More10 2016
Tackling stigma and discrimination on World Mental Health Day: What we now Know. What Next?
People continued to be discriminated against by the very systems that are supposed to support them. Within health services, welfare and housing, people reported no improvement or even more discrimination than they did in 2008.
Today (10 October) is World Mental Health Day.
Read MoreInclusion and combating stigma
30 2016
Long term impacts of medication for Bipolar
Medication side effects are a burning issue for many service users and carers. Yet research to date has failed to accurately reflect the prevalence of the adverse events and effects resulting from long term psychiatric medication use. This is a particularly urgent issue for people diagnosed with Bipolar, as influential guidelines on its management, including those of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the British Association for Psychopharmacology, advocate the long term use of medications.
30 2016
Influencing the debate – peer research in academic journals
A new special edition reporting findings from the Viewpoint survey was published in July. It includes a paper on our qualitative research into mental health discrimination experiences which was co-authored with four peer researchers. We reflect on the importance of experts by experience being named as authors, and why they are so often absent from peer reviewed journal articles.
Collaborating with people with lived experience
Inclusion and combating stigma
30 2016
The Inflamed Mind
There is a growing amount of evidence that some mental health problems may be due in part to the brain becoming ‘inflamed’. In August BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme about this titled ‘The inflamed Mind’. You can listen to the programme by clicking here.
30 2016
Ride London – Evan’s blog
McPin Rider 2016
When I feel the black dog sniffing around I’ve learned to hit the gym. I suppose I’ve always dealt with depression, though generally it’s nothing too serious. I went through one period of doing every intensive aerobic session I could find at the YMCA in Montreal.
Read More14 2016
New Investment in NHS Research Infrastructure shows Mental Health research is gaining traction
On Wednesday the Government announced the next five years of funding for NIHR’s 20 Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs). These are collaborations between universities and NHS trusts that provide facilities and support for medical research, and in particular experimental medicine. What is exciting is the prominence that Mental Health is now getting.
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
1 2016
Involvement in Research on Loneliness
Reducing loneliness – how do you do that then? Hopefully through recruiting the right Community Navigators! Here we reflect on how involving experts by experience in a recruitment exercise can add value and hopefully contribute to a successful research study.
Improving mental health support
19 2016
Sad but inspiring: In memory of Donald Campbell
Monday morning and I was on my way to work catching up with the news and social media. I had missed an excellent piece in the Sunday Times by Alistair Campbell about his brother Donald who died recently aged 62. Luckily it is available as a blog. Reading, I was immediately absorbed. That’s the power of the personal narrative. I also felt very, very sad. Another person dying far too early after years of treatment for schizophrenia.
Read MoreInclusion and combating stigma
15 2016
Taking a challenge – cycling for research into suicide
On Sunday 31st July I got up very early – 4.45am – and cycled to the train station to start my Ride London-Surrey Prudential challenge. Getting to the start line was quite an effort as I live in West London and it started in Stratford over to the east.
1 2016
Drawing up Research Priorities – different perspectives
One of the most significant aspects of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health was the Department of Health’s commitment to develop a ten year strategy for mental health research. We at McPin are now working with the Department on the process for drawing up the strategy.
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
25 2016
Getting our Report Card – asking people what they think of you and acting on their responses, the Your Experience in Mind Survey
Research and Evaluation Officer, Mind
Mind have been worki
ng together with the McPin Foundation since 2014 to evaluate the experience of people using our federated local Minds through the annual ‘Your Experience in Mind’ survey. We have 146 local Minds across England and Wales providing over 50 different types of service.
Collaborating with people with lived experience
Improving mental health support
13 2016
Implementing an online mental health toolkit for relatives– reflections from our first data day!
There is an increased focus and interest in how to implement innovations into health care settings. And there should be! Call it improvement science or knowledge transfer or implementation – this area of work is how information developed through research studies or service improvement programmes can be used to achieve practical change.
Read MoreImproving mental health support
30 2016
Why did I take on the work with the McPin Foundation?
In March this year I took on an exciting opportunity: working with The McPin Foundation as a Peer Project Assistant on a pilot scheme entitled ‘My Story, Our Future’. We will be exploring the stories of people who have themselves used or supported others accessing Early Intervention for Psychosis (EIP) services.
Collaborating with people with lived experience
30 2016
Pregnancy and medication choices: new research published
Many women with severe mental illness take psychotropic medication. This can put them in a difficult situation if they become pregnant, or wish to become pregnant, as there are concerns about the possible effects of these medications on unborn children. Until now there has been a lack of evidence about the risks to the unborn child, putting the women and their healthcare professionals in a quandary.
Children, young people and families
30 2016
Virtual Reality Helps Beat Paranoia
‘Paranoia’. It’s one of those words that retain their stigma despite all the good work of campaigns such as Time to Change. A reason for this might be the way that the word is used so much in everyday life. The term your paranoid can be used as a response to so many statements.
28 2016
Brexit and Mental Health Research: making the best of uncertain times
As we recover from Thursday’s referendum our thoughts at McPin have started to turn towards what it means for our mission to transform mental health research. As we enter a period of uncertainty it is easy to be downhearted. But it is also an opportunity to think again about how we make the case for research at a time when it is going to be needed more than ever.
Read MoreMental Health Policy & Strategy
14 2016
What does the research tell us about how you talk about and beat stress? #MHW2016
‘How do you beat stress’? was the question for Men’s Health Week which ran 13th to 17th June 2016. How do men talk about stress? How do men manage it rather than let it build up and harm us? Read Daryl's blog on the role of research in answering this question. We link this to some of our work at McPin and we are keen to hear your views on how research can play a role in creating mentally healthier communities ....
Read More9 2016
Peer Research and Complex Needs: A Mental Health Perspective
Read a new blog about how research on people with complex needs are using an approach that we champion at the McPin Foundation – peer research. Written by Agnes, a senior researcher in our team, it looks at some of the challenges and benefits of peer involvement in research. It was written for Revolving Doors, a charity that supports people with complex needs including mental health issues. We are really proud to support their work exploring the role of peer - otherwise known as experts by experience - contribution to research.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
13 2016
Relationships for Mental Health
At the McPin Foundation, we’re gearing up for Mental Health Awareness Week, which provides an opportunity to join together to promote the importance of wellbeing and mental health for everyone, young or old. Mental Health Awareness Week 2016 takes place between 16th and 22nd May and the theme is ‘relationships’, because of the massive influence they have on our health and wellbeing. This connects with a number of projects that we are involved in at McPin, which sit under our theme of 'Wellbeing and Connectedness'. You can find out more by clicking here.
Read More31 2016
My Marathon Story
by Helen Casebourne
Last year, on a cold, grey, drizzly day I found myself with thousands of other people on the start line for the London Marathon. I was suffering with a horrid cold, the last thing I felt like doing was going for a run, never mind one which would take me on a 26.2 mile route from Blackheath to Buckingham Palace.
31 2016
Mental Health and Support into Employment: Is it Working?
As the recent report from the Mental Health Taskforce points out, only 43% of people with mental health problems are in work, compared with 65% of people with other health conditions, and 74% of people in the general population. The figures are far lower for people with severe mental illness – for example, the employment rate for people with schizophrenia is around 8%.
Improving mental health support
31 2016
Improving the quality of participant information sheets
Researchers at Kings College London have just produced an interesting paper, published Feb 2016. It is available online, and can be easily accessed. It looks at the ease of reading participant information sheets over a 10 year period – June 2003 to October 2013.
10 2015
How to reduce stigma and discrimination?
How to reduce mental health related stigma and discrimination? This is a topic that we have been doing research on for several years, most recently working in schools to evaluate the Time to Change children and young people pilot campaign. Time to Change have just released the next phase of their campaign targeting young people and parents in particular, building on the message ‘small things can make a big difference’.
Inclusion and combating stigma
10 2015
Children and young people’s mental health – we all have a part to play
In recent months, the mental health of children and young people has hit the headlines. It is well established that most mental health problems begin during adolescence, with 1 in 10 young people (aged 11-16) thought to experience a diagnosable mental health problem.
Children, young people and families
1 2015
Is collecting participant support preferences in interviews with vulnerable people helpful?
Recently, we decided to take an audit across three separate projects to see how participants responded to our questions about their preferences for support. We decided to present what they told us as an infographic. 
We would love for you to tell us what you think of this approach – do you think that asking participants for their support preferences as part of the research recruitment process is helpful? Do you have any concerns ? Let us know your thoughts.
21 2015
Getting to know Linda Gask through her memoir; “The Other Side of Silence: A Psychiatrist’s Memoir of Depression” – a book review and audio interview
We profile a book written by a psychiatrist, academic and person with depression. Linda Gask has written a memoir that explores what it is like to live with depression, and we have interviewed her about the role of depression in her research career. We know Linda because we are working with her on a study about collaborative care. She is keen that her book can be used to reduce stigma and educate others about depression.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
21 2015
#RCTDebate – what did we learn?
Our first ever public event was held on 8th October 2015 at the Jerwood Space. This was a chance to bring people with different expertise together to consider the role of the RCT (Randomised Control Trial) in mental health research design. It was also the launch of our Talking Point series of papers – a group of papers written by survivor / service user researchers on under discussed topics. Our launched paper by Alison Faulkner has a title that speaks for itself: “RCTs: the straitjacket of mental health research?
Read More8 2015
Talking Point: RCTs- the straitjacket of mental health research?
We had our first public event and the launch of our Talking Point series on Thursday 8th October 2015 at Jerwood Space in Southwark. We looked at the role of the Randomised Control Trials in mental health research with the help of Professor Sonia Johnson from University College London and Dr Steve Gillard from St George's University of London. Alison Faulkner, survivor researcher and trainer provided an overview of her Talking Point paper and we hosted a discussion. We also had a live twitter discussion during the event: #RCTDebate.
Read More30 2015
Reflecting on our mission to #transformMHresearch
Just recently, the McPin Foundation have been reflecting on our mission to "transform mental health research". We have been busy in the past year as our info graphic shows: McPin Foundation 2014 2015. We seek to build a community who share our mission to #transformMHresearch - and to do that we need to develop conversations on our twitter feed @mcpinfoundation on facebook, at events, in blogs, at conferences and in person. Please do join the conversation!
Read More30 2015
Mental health research priorities for Europe
There seems to be a lot of conversations at the moment about priorities for mental health research. What should funders fund to improve the lives of individuals and communities with regard to mental health? Where are the promising breakthroughs? How can we gain parity for mental health research funding alongside other health areas?
30 2015
Marking world suicide prevention day
On the 10th September 2015, across the globe, people came together to mark the 13th annual World Suicide Prevention Day. This saw reports of candlelight vigils in the UK, flash-mobs in India, the release of balloons across America, and in Ireland, famous landmarks were lit up in orange.
Inclusion and combating stigma
5 2015
Genetic link to depression discovered?
Genetic link to depression discovered? A consortium of researchers from Oxford and China has discovered two specific regions of DNA that have been linked to depression. These findings were published in Nature in July this year. The results are some of the strongest evidence yet that genetics do indeed have some part to play in depression. Our Public Involvement in Research Manager, Thomas Kabir shares his thoughts on this exciting research in our latest blog.
Read More3 2015
Reflections from working on an evaluation project: Your Experience in Mind
We are keen to look at new ways of involving mental health service users and carers in research. Part of our commitment to developing new approaches has been to investigate the things that have worked well and not so well about the methods we have tried in our own research and evaluation studies. We will publish a series of methods papers describing our work. Our first methods paper describes the 'Survey Champion' approach used in an evaluation of Local Minds.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
Improving mental health support
25 2015
Research in the News – Mindfulness for the masses?
Over the past couple of months, mindfulness has been making headlines again. This is partly due to a new study, published in the Lancet that suggests that the practice is ‘as effective as pills for treating recurrent depression’.
It is fair to say that for some years now, there has been a lot of hype surrounding mindfulness – a type of therapy that draws on aspects of ancient Buddhist practices and is aimed at ‘increasing people’s awareness of themselves, their emotions and the environment around them, through meditation, yoga and breathing’.
Read More25 2015
Right Here Right Now: The CQC on the state of crisis care
The Crisis Care Concordat was launched in February 2014 with the aim of improving the quality and availability of help and support for people experiencing a mental health crisis; support before reaching crisis point, urgent access to safe, respectful and effective care in an emergency, and support for recovery and the prevention of future crises.
Improving mental health support
25 2015
A new area of work for the McPin Foundation – mental health sciences
“Thomas – you need to look at a protein structure from lots of different points of view to understand how it works”. This was some of the most valuable advice I ever got when I was doing my PhD. I was studying how proteins stick to one another to form complexes at UCL in London.
1 2015
Reflections from 10 years of service user and survivor research event
On Monday (1st June, 2015), St George's University of London celebrated 10 years of doing service user and survivor research with a fantastic day of discussions attended by many inspirational leaders in mental health research, from a lived experience perspective. Three of us from the McPin Foundation attended. In one of the sessions, Sarah Carr, Peter Beresford, Diana Rose and Jayasaree Kalathil reflected on the place of collaborative and survivor research in Universities. Is it safe in universities?
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
30 2015
Reflections from my research placement
by Katrina Heyman
A
s a mental health student nurse, evidence based practice is a term that is regularly thrown about. But what does evidence based practice mean? It means that all the essential components of a nurse’s knowledge and skills, in providing excellent health care, is based on information emerging from the best available evidence- evidence which stems from research.
24 2015
#mymadidea from West London Collaborative
I attended a very interesting event at Chelsea Football Club on 21st May organised by the West London Collaborative – a new, independent organisation that is working with West London Mental Health NHS Trust to enable service users, carers and staff to work together in equal partnership to design, deliver and evaluate services following co-production as a way of working.
13 2015
Research into practice – reflections from a primary care event
Today we attended a learning and development event for primary care practitioners - GPs, practice nurses, information specialists in London. The opening session particularly addressed local practitioners about current changes in mental health - both local and national agendas including how funding is allocated and services join up. With the new mental health task force working away to create a 5 year forward view of the future it will be interesting to see how issues raised in local meetings can find their way to the task force because crucial concerns are being raised particularly about collaborative provision of solutions for people with mental health problems. How to remove the barriers between teams or system elements so that better care is provided? Can research help with some answers? I hope so. The importance of research linked to practice was mentioned several times.
Read More26 2015
Involvement in research and trials: the participants’ perspective
by Dr Ben Gray
A crucial factor in making a piece of research successful or not is participant engagement. Do people want to take part and can you keep them engaged for follow-up if that is required? But very little research has been carried out of participant experiences of what’s involved in “taking part in research” and why people do.
Read More26 2015
A Social Prescription a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?
by Laura Hemming
“Medicine is not only a science; it is also an art. It does not consist of compounding pills and plasters; it deals with the very processes of life, which must be understood before they may be guided.” Paracelsus
With the next general election in less than two months’ time, mental health and wellbeing issues have recently become a political talking point with several parties promising to “bring mental health out of the shadows”.
Read More12 2015
Young People Rethinking Mental Health Conference
by Naomi Clewett
A few of us from McPin attended the Young People ReThinking Mental Health event last week run by the Clinical Research Network: Mental Health. It was a really engaging event showcasing how young people can be involved in mental health research as active advisors and shapers of that research, rather than merely as participants. Read Naomi's blog about the event.
Read MoreChildren, young people and families
25 2014
The genetics of schizophrenia
To say that schizophrenia is a controversial diagnosis would be putting it mildly. Almost everything relating to schizophrenia has been contested, often ferociously. Putting that to one side, there is a lot of research into schizophrenia particularly to understand causation and treatments.
25 2014
Understanding psychosis and schizophrenia – new report from the British Psychology Society
The end of November saw the launch of a new report by the, British Psychology Society (BPS) with the aim of challenging stereotypes of schizophrenia and psychosis. This is 14 years on from the publication of the first edition “Recent Advances in Understanding Mental Illness and Psychotic Experiences” which was a really useful overview emphasising the contribution of a psychological perspective to making sense of ‘serious mental illness’.
13 2014
Suicide happens. We need to talk about it. And we need to research it.
by Amy Meadows
Robin Williams death is a tragedy. He was undoubtedly a comic genius who has brought so much laughter and joy to millions of people around the world in his memorable (and at times immortal) roles. So many of his films and prophetic musings have been powerful way markers for my childhood and early adulthood.
Read More29 2014
Personalisation and mental health – new research report launched
A research project commissioned by Mind, the mental health charity has just reported its findings. It was carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) as part of a programme of work on personalisation in mental health funded by the Department of Health.
Read More29 2014
Improving wellbeing for everyone – and the challenges for research
by Daryl Sweet
Wellbeing is currently a buzzword in the world of public health. In July, CentreForum released a report on happiness and wellbeing which recommended that a focus on wellbeing be embedded across Governmental and community work, and that subjective wellbeing should be used to evaluate and allocate health resources.
14 2014
Mental health intelligence network
I attended the launch of the Public Health England pilot website a few weeks back – the National Mental Health, Dementia and Neurology networks. I found the event interesting, partly because I was involved in the PHE consultation report to gather people’s views on the design and accessibility of the site, but also because I am keen to use this tool myself to campaign for change in my locality.
Read More27 2014
Ups and Downs
We have been involved in a study looking at experiences of support and treatment in bipolar disorder. And it has recently been published in the Journal of Mental Health so it felt like a good time to reflect on this piece of work.
Read MoreImproving mental health support
28 2014
We are concerned about the mental health of PhD students. By Sarah Hamilton
The McPin Foundation’s vision is to ‘transform mental health research’ to ensure that lived experience is at the heart of all research affecting people with mental health problems. This means making research accessible at lots of different levels to allow people with different interests and skills to have their contribution valued in research.
Read More19 2014
Hearing people’s stories: interviewing with the McPin Foundation
Katherine Barrett describes her experience of working with the McPin Foundation to interview people about experiences of discrimination
I have just been involved in some very interesting research at the McPin Foundation. I have been a telephone interviewer for the Viewpoint Survey for two years now and in October 2013 I was invited to take part in a qualitative study using the Viewpoint questionnaire.
Read MoreInclusion and combating stigma
20 2013
World Innovation Summit on Health (WISH)
Last week I attended WISH as a guest of Lord Ara Darzi along with around 800 international delegates representing health fields across the globe. The Institute for Global Health Innovation at Imperial college London has posted some highlights online and Richard Horton provided a comment piece in the Lancet this week.
Read More2 2013
Does service user involvement in research make a difference?
by Jess Cotney
A major interest of the McPin Foundation is how service user and carer involvement in mental health research, reaching beyond taking part as participants, improves any project. It is a topic that is of interest to research funders as well, with programmes of research being commissioned by the NIHR to answer this question.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
22 2013
Doing PPI better: why we are always learning
by Sarah Hamilton
Last week, I attended a fantastic conference on Patient and Public Involvement in Exeter, organised by the South Peninsula CLAHRC.
The conference was a very inspiring event with a wide variety of researchers, practitioners and people who have used health services and are engaged in Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research.
Read MoreCollaborating with people with lived experience
6 2013
What helps personalisation flourish?
It sometimes seems as though our health and social care systems are in a constant state of change. Queen’s speech announced more changes to social care, at a time of increasingly difficult financial constraints. One area which is being widely discussed is the need to improve integration between Local Authorities and the National Health Services.
Read More30 2013
Reporting stigma experiences – views of practitioners, families and people living with mental health problems
In March, the Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) ran their Annual three day National Scientific Meeting in London. The scientific meeting is an opportunity for mental health professionals, researchers, service users and carers to get together and find out about the different research that is currently being supported by the MHRN.
Read MoreInclusion and combating stigma
4 2013
Time to Change
Findings from the evaluation of the first three years of Time to Change England’s biggest ever anti-stigma campaign, were published on 3 April in the British Journal of Psychiatry and commented upon by journalists at the Times and Guardian. This evaluation includes the Viewpoint Survey, run by King’s College London in partnership with the McPin Foundation.
Read More