15 2021
Work Well
What is this project?
The Work Well project was an employment project operating in South London and funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) and National Lottery Community Fund as part of the Building Better Opportunities programme.
The aim of the programme was to invest in local projects that tackled poverty and promoted social inclusion and employment, while also providing clients with tailored employment support.
Read More28 2020
Keep Cool: promoting teen mental health during Covid-19
What is the project about?
For many young people, Covid-19 has had a negative effect on mental health. Many young people report high rates of anxiety or low mood – even higher than before Covid-19, according to some studies.
Read More25 2020
Social support after loss to suicide
What is this research?
The McPin Foundation is supporting a PhD project based at University College London focusing on social support after a loss to suicide. Not much is known about the impact of suicide loss on a group of family and friends, or about how best they can support each other through this bereavement.
Read More1 2020
Screen Time: research priorities for screen time and young people’s mental health
What is this project?
This project aims to identify important and unanswered questions about the impact of recreational and social screen time on young people’s mental health. In this project, screen time is defined as watching TV and online videos, playing games, browsing the internet and using social media.
Read More25 2020
Agency, Social Identity & Justice in Mental Health: A collaboration with young people, clinicians & academics
What is this project?
Funded by the Medical Research Council, our Young People’s Network is working with Rose McCabe, Matthew Broome, Lisa Bortolotti and Michael Larkin on an exciting new project about young people’s sense of social agency. Agency is the capacity of an individual to act independently and make their own choices.
Read More3 2020
MumsAid: Evaluation of a perinatal counselling service
MumsAid is a charity that provides free counselling for women experiencing mental or emotional difficulties in pregnancy or after having a baby. The aim is to improve clients’ mental health, wellbeing, confidence in parenting, and the bond between mother and baby. McPin were commissioned by MumsAid to evaluate the service to see what impact it has had.
Read More7 2019
Violence, abuse and mental health: identifying research priorities
The Violence Abuse and Mental Health Network (VAMHN) is a network of researchers, charities and other organisations which aims to reduce the prevalence of mental health problems across people's lives by addressing violence and abuse. The McPin Foundation have been involved in setting research priorities for the network.
Read More10 2019
Designing an audio tour for the National Gallery
What is this project?
Funded by the Medical Research Council, our Young People’s Network worked with Dr Helen Fisher and the National Gallery team to design a mental health themed audio tour. The tour focused on raising mental health awareness by debunking some of the major mental health myths.
Read More14 2019
Women Side by Side: Evaluation of a women’s peer support programme
For information about this project, please see the following:
Project reports:
- McPin Evaluation Report in English and Welsh
- McPin Executive Summary in English and Welsh
- Policy report
Blogs:
Outline of our evaluation:
Read More12 2018
Collaborating with The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute
What is this project?
The goal of THIS Institute, which is funded by the Health Foundation, is to “create a world-leading scientific asset for the NHS about how to improve quality and safety in healthcare. We are guided by a highly participatory, collaborative ethos that combines academic rigour with the real concerns of the people who use and work in the NHS”.
Read More28 2018
Mental Health and Money Advice: Evaluation of a joined up service
Research shows that people who experience mental health problems are more likely to struggle with money. The reverse is also true, people who experience money problems have a higher chance of struggling with their mental health. Despite this, there is a lack of services offering support to individuals struggling to cope with these two topics combined. That's why we are evaluating one of the first UK-wide combined money and mental health service set up by Mental Health UK.
22 2018
Open Space: Evaluation of a library-based wellbeing programme
What is this research?
Suffolk libraries are running a library-based programme that offers psychological and wellbeing support to the local community. The libraries are working in partnership with Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Julian Support, an organisation that offers housing support to people with mental health problems.
Read More9 2018
Peer Support Employment Groups Evaluation
What is this study?
This is an evaluation of a Peer Support Employment Groups project, which is led by the mental health charity Mind and funded by the Building Better Opportunities (BBO) National Lottery Community Fund. The aim of this project is to support those with mental health issues furthest away from the labour market into employment or education/training.
Read More3 2019
Perinatal Mental Health: Peer Support Principles
What is this study?
Comic Relief and the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) commissioned Mind and the McPin Foundation to develop a set of guidelines to help people and organisations providing peer support to new mums. The guidelines – or principles – should give people the knowledge and confidence to provide support that is safe, inclusive and helpful.
Read More9 2018
IMPART: Implementing an online support package for carers
What is this study?
The Implementation of a Relatives Toolkit (IMPART) project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research programme. It is looking at how to implement a digital mental health intervention into routine clinical care.
Read More9 2018
Connecting People
What is this study?
This is a study about a programme called Connecting People based at the University of York and funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School of Social Care Research. It seeks to support the development of people’s social networks as part of a mental health recovery journey.
Read More9 2018
AD-CARE
(Acute Day Units as Crisis Alternatives to Residential Care)
What is this research?
AD-CARE is a 3 year research study funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and led by researchers at University College London (UCL), to explore how acute day units – previously known as day hospitals – contribute to crisis care support for people with mental health problems.
Read More18 2017
Thrive London – Employment and Mental Health
You can download the final report here.
What is this research?
We were commissioned by the London Health Board and the London Mental Health & Employment Collaboration to carry out a small study to illustrate the experiences of Londoners who have been affected by serious mental health problems and are either in work or looking for a job.
Read More29 2017
Active Lives, Healthy Minds
What is this study?
Active Lives, Healthy Minds is a mental health and wellbeing project focusing on the Nepalese, Somali and Tamil communities in west London. The project is run by Race on the Agenda (RotA) in partnership with the Tamil Community Centre, Ilays and Account Trust.
Read More11 2017
The TOGether Project: Evaluation of a suicide and self-harm intervention
What is this research?
Tameside, Oldham and Glossop (TOG) Mind ran a three year project aimed at addressing people at risk of suicide and self-harming in Tameside. It was initially targeted at men aged 18-55, but this remit was extended during the project to include women.
Read More23 2017
Research in English NHS Mental Health Trusts
Download our briefing Everywhere and Everyone Included? research in NHS Mental Health Trusts in England
What is this work?
We wanted to understand how research active NHS mental health trusts in England are, and what the barriers to trusts hosting or developing research are.
Read More9 2017
SLaM’s Wheel of Wellbeing Evaluation
Reports
Our Theory of Change for the Wheel of Wellbeing, and accompanying report, are now available to download:
Theory of Change for the SLaM Wheel of Wellbeing
SLaM Wheel of Wellbeing Theory of Change Report
What is this research?
The Wheel of Wellbeing is a visual framework made up of six universal themes that underpin mental (and physical) health and wellbeing: body; mind; spirit; people; place; planet.
Read More7 2017
Mental Health Peer Health Coaching Initiative – Evaluation
The final report is available to download here
What was this project?
Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust commissioned the McPin Foundation to carry out an independent evaluation of a peer coaching project. The project was co-designed and led by trust staff and people with experience of mental health problems.
Read More11 2017
My Support Broker, Evaluation
This project is now completed, and the two volumes of the report are available to download.
What is this research?
My Support Broker is a social business that provides independent support brokerage to help people with social care needs plan and manage their support.
Read More11 2017
Suicide Prevention & Bereavement Support
What is this research?
We have collaborated on a number of projects looking at how suicide can be prevented and how people who are bereaved by suicide are supported. These include:
- Using funds from the Judi Meadows Memorial Fund we are supporting, with the University of Exeter, a PhD studentship examining how GPs can identify and better support people who are in psychological distress and may be at risk from suicide.
22 2016
Cognitive Bias Modification for Paranoia (CBM-pa)
What is this study?
The CBM-pa study aims to investigate whether a new technique known as cognitive bias modification (CBM) is helpful for people experiencing paranoid thoughts. The research involves participants completing a computerised CBM-pa programme. This programme presents everyday situations and draws people’s attention to specific words that might trigger paranoid thoughts.
Read More2 2016
Right People, Right Questions: Research priorities for young people’s mental health
What is this research?
We conducted a James Lind Alliance (JLA) priority-setting partnership (PSP) to help support our understanding of children and young people’s mental health. It brings together children and young people (including those with lived experience of mental health problems), families, professionals and academics to identify the top 10 priorities for research in children and young people’s mental health.
Read More5 2016
Peer Mentoring Service at Camden VoiceAbility – A Qualitative Evaluation
Download the final evaluation report
What was this project?
Camden Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) asked the McPin Foundation to carry out an independent evaluation of the peer mentoring service run by Camden VoiceAbility. Peer mentoring through VoiceAbility involved a mentee setting short-term, achievable goals with a mentor, who had been through similar experiences.
Read More23 2016
Information and Psychosis
A summary of our findings can be found here.
What was this research?
This project included focus groups and one-to-one interviews with a total of 27 service users with experience of psychosis and 16 carers. The project aimed to support the work of Imperial College Health Partners who have developed a psychosis pathway and are working locally to improve outcomes for people with psychosis.
Read More27 2016
Community Navigators: Reducing loneliness in people with depression and anxiety
Though everyone experiences loneliness from time to time, people with mental health problems report having smaller social networks. Research has found links between loneliness and shorter life expectancy, as well as reduced rates of recovery from depression and anxiety. It is therefore important that we find out what is effective at helping people with depression and anxiety to feel more connected to others.
11 2016
100 People: Evaluation of employment support
Download the final report on the 100 People
Download the summary report on the 100 People Project
What is this research?
Funded by the Trust for London, the 100 People project will delivered specialist employment support to people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder using the Individual Placement and Support model.
Read More26 2016
My Story, Our Future: a storytelling project about living with psychosis
What is this research?
This work was commissioned by the Office of London Clinical Commissioning Groups, the mental health support charity Certitude and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to better understand the experiences of people who have psychosis.
Why is this work important?
Read More22 2016
SLaM Recovery College Evaluation
We've just begun some exciting new work on an evaluation of the SLaM Recovery College. Throughout the evaluation we'll be talking with students and tutors of the college, and stakeholders in the local community to find out how the recovery college approach to mental health is working in SLaM for students at the college. The Recovery College Model revolves around recovery based education classes that are co-produced by service user and health care practitioner tutors and jointly delivered to a mix of service user, carer and health care professional students who learn together within the college.
Read More25 2015
IAPT for people with severe mental illness: A service user evaluation
We have just produced two reports from our service user evaluation of IAPT for SMI funded by NHS England. The su
mmary report is a 12 page A5 booklet and the full report is much longer! Both have been produced with the three peer researchers who worked on this study alongside staff from the McPin Foundation. We are very grateful to everyone who participated and are working with the study sites to disseminate the findings locally.
Read More
24 2015
REACH – Resilience, Ethnicity, Adolescence and Mental Health
Our Public Involvement in Research team are working with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IOPPN), on an exciting new project called REACH, which is a research programme funded by the European Union. It is a five year programme which will look at risk and resilience factors
among secondary school aged children in London (aged 11 to 16), using surveys with young people as well as follow-up interviews with a smaller group of young people to explore emerging themes.
Read More
10 2015
Side by Side: A National Evaluation of Peer Support
Mind, Bipolar UK and Depression Alliance have been funded by the Big Lottery Fund to develop a programme that will raise awareness of, and deliver, mental health peer support across nine regions of England and their online peer support platform, Elefriends. The McPin Foundation are working with St George's, University of London and the London School of Economics to evaluate the programme. We will seek to understand the principles and values that lie at the heart of peer support and develop the best way to support and expand the sector based on the evidence we gather. We will also be exploring the impact of the programme over a 12 month period. Read More9 2015
Trial of Sertraline versus CBT for generalised Anxiety (ToSCA)
The following text has been adapted from the protocol for the study
1. What is this research?
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is common, causes unpleasant feelings and damages people’s lives. It is often chronic and may be accompanied by depression. Recent NICE guidelines have outlined the best initial treatments but it isn’t clear whether medication or psychological therapy provides better outcomes for those not responding to simpler low intensity treatments.
Read More24 2015
Kent Wellbeing Programme Evaluation
Reports
Our final report on our evaluation of the Kent Mental Wellbeing programme is now available. If you would like any further information about the evaluation or report, please feel free to contact Rose – rosethompson@mcpin.org.
Kent Wellbeing final summary report
You can see our reports from the Theory of Change work from the first phase of the evaluation by clicking below:
Kent Wellbeing Concept mapping summary report
Kent Wellbeing Concept mapping full report
You can see individual project reports for 3 of our Kent projects by clicking below:
What is this research?
Read More20 2014
The Primrose project: severe mental illness and physical health
The Primrose project is a large scale research study based at University College London and we support a Lived Experience Advisory Panel co-ordinated by Dr Ben Gray. People with mental health problems are at greater risk of developing heart problems. The Primrose project aims to develop and pilot a new service in primary care that improves the care of people with mental health problems and reduces their likelihood of having heart problems. Read More20 2014
Cochrane summaries
The Cochrane Schizophrenia Group is internationally recognised and based at the University of Nottingham. The group produce systematic reviews on the latest evidence about schizophrenia. The reviews focus on the latest randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in the treatment of schizophrenia. Read More28 2014
Crisis Care Concordat evaluation
What was this evaluation?
The Crisis Care Concordat was launched in February 2014. It is an England-wide national agreement between the different agencies and services involved in the care of people experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, a mental health crisis.
Read More20 2014
Driving Change: Global mental health report
We worked with Mind to support the global mental health forum for the World Innovation Summit in Health (WISH) which met in Doha, December 2013. Our role was to work with mental health NGOs across the world to understand their views and experiences of innovations in mental health care.
Read More20 2014
PEOPLE Study – evaluating personalisation and personal budgets
We have delivered with Rethink Mental Illness a Big Lottery Funded research study into the impact of personalisation on people with severe mental illness. The study has produced a series of tool kits which were launched October 2013. There are toolkits for practitioners, people living with mental health problems and families or carers.
The project has been guided throughout by a group of people with lived experience of mental health problems and with an interest in personalisation. This Lived Experience Advisory Panel has helped us to put together our data collection tools, to recruit people to the study, to gather local intelligence and to analyse our data.
“I’m proud of my personal involvement with the People Study and I know that I have learnt such a lot from the process and from everyone involved in the study. I have found it to be very rewarding and the journey has been an interesting one. I’m really fascinated by research processes and have a healthy respect for the amount of work that goes into putting together innovative research.” Shirley Dean, All Together Positive
Read More
25 2014
Your Experience in Mind, Survey
We are working with Mind to gain feedback from the people using their services. The Local Mind’s taking part are each recruiting one person with lived experience of mental health issues to
work with us to promote the survey locally and help us with analysis and dissemination. It is a really exciting project working in England and Wales and we know we are going to learn a lot from our lived experience team in how best to run and coordinate these large scale evaluations efficiently, sensitively and inclusively to ensure diverse voices are heard.
Read More
25 2014
Birth Companions
We are working with Birth Companions to evaluate their Community Link project which provides support to vulnerable women before, during and immediately after the birth of their baby. Women accessing the service face multiple challenges including social isolation, mental health problems, immigration and asylum issues and a history of abuse. We are conducting interviews and a literature review to find out what works to support these women during this difficult period of their life. The evaluation project is guided by women who used to access the service, staff and volunteers.
Read More
22 2013
Viewpoint Survey on stigma and discrimination
The McPin Foundation is a founding partner in the Viewpoint Survey, a major annual survey of experiences of mental health discrimination among around 1,000 service users across five areas of England. The project is delivered in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London. Researchers at the Foundation have worked on the project since it began in 2008.
Read More
22 2013
Wellbeing Networks and Mental Health
We have recently completed a two year research study looking at the personal networks of people with severe mental illness in two study sites by mapping connections to people, places and activities. We worked with Plymouth University and the study was funded by the NIHR Health Service and Delivery Research (HS&DR) programme. A key interest has been looking at the social factors that impact on mental health problems, and developing ideas for further research on recovery and connectedness. Read More22 2013
Decisions about medication during pregnancy
How do women decide whether to stop or continue taking their mental health medication during pregnancy? Read about the decision-making journey of 12 women in our new paper
22 2013
Young people’s anti-stigma campaign
We are delivering the Time to Change Children and Young People’s programme evaluation. This means working in schools across Kent and parts of London understanding the impact of Time to Change activities on kids aged 13-15 in terms of their attitudes, knowledge and intended behaviour. In 2003 one of our team undertook mental health awareness research in secondary schools and found 250 different labels used to describe people with mental health problems. Part of our evaluation will assess if the list of words used today about mental health issues has changed and how.
Read More
5 2013
Community Health Networks research
Our 30 month study looking at the community health networks of people with mental health problems completed data collection today (5 August 2013). This NIHR Health Service and Delivery Research funded study will report in October 2013. We have just commissioned an independent peer researcher to work with the group of service user researchers on the project to ensure their take on our findings from a lived experience perspective is fully incorporated into the writing up phase.
Read More
