Young People 13-28

Join a Lived Experience Advisory Panel for a project on improving physical health in young people with experience of psychosis

Lived experience • Physical health • Psychosis

What’s the project?

Young people with experience of psychosis have a higher chance of developing physical health issues (e.g., obesity, diabetes and heart disease) in the future, compared with the rest of the general population. Tools can be developed to help predict risk of developing physical health issues; however, there is currently no tool suitable specifically for young people with experience of psychosis.

Researcher Ben Perry at the University of Birmingham has developed and validated a tool that can predict which young people with experience of psychosis have the highest chance of developing physical health issues in the future. It is called the Psychosis Metabolic Risk Calculator (PsyMetRiC).

It is hoped that PsyMetRiC could help healthcare professionals, as well as young people with experience of psychosis, to be more informed about the risk of future physical health issues and aid shared decision making about different lifestyle- and medication-based treatments to reduce risk.

Find out more

For PsyMetRiC to be successfully used in the clinic, it needs to be acceptable to young people with experience of psychosis. The McPin Foundation Young People’s Network and Advisory Group have previously supported the development and validation of PsyMetRiC, particularly regarding what information young people are comfortable disclosing as predictors in the tool and shaping future research. Ben Perry has now successfully received further funding and we are looking to establish a dedicated PsyMetRiC Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP), in collaboration with The Centre for Mental Health and Equally Well.

Commitment
The PsyMetRiC LEAP will meet twice online, with one longer in-person meeting per year, over five years. Rotating members will attend and ensure lived experience representation at project steering group meetings, to be held twice a year, over five years. There will also be the opportunity for 2 members to be trained as young people co-researchers to co-facilitate ongoing PsyMetRiC research. Finally, various pieces of ad-hoc work will be offered to members in-between meetings. All members will receive appropriate support, training and development as required. Work will include:

  • General input and advice on the design and conduct of the project throughout, including review of project documentation and participant recruitment materials.
  • Discussion of how to best to communicate risk, with training in scientific communications and graphic design to co-produce project and tool app branding and resources.
  • Deciding the threshold risk score at which a young person would be offered lifestyle- and medication-based treatments to reduce risk.
  • Deciding which physical health outcomes are most important for young people with experience of psychosis so we know what to measure in future tests of PsyMetRiC and interventions.
  • Helping to disseminate project results in understandable, accessible ways including writing blogs and reflective editorials / comment pieces to accompany main research papers, co-authoring main research papers where appropriate, and using new graphic design skills to produce infographics and social media assets.

We are looking for 5 people with relevant lived experience to become PsyMetRiC LEAP members, alongside a further 5 members recruited by Centre of Mental Health and Equally Well:

  • Must be based in the UK.
  • Must be a young person/young adult aged 16-35 years old.
  • Must have lived experience of hearing voices, seeing visions or other unusual sensory experiences.
  • Must have recent experience of being seen by a healthcare professional in an ‘early intervention service’ for these experiences.
  • Must have access to a digital device and stable internet connection to join online meetings with video on. (If you have any concerns about this, please do get in touch as we have funds to assist with digital inclusion)

Online meetings, pre-reading and ad-hoc work will be paid at a rate of £25 per hour. In-person LEAP meetings typically last 3.5 – 4 hours, for which you will be paid £100 for your attendance. Reasonable travel and subsistence expenses will be reimbursed.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please complete this application form and email it to the McPin project contact, Annie Walsh ([email protected]).

Mental health issues affect everyone, but recruitment to advisory groups does not always reflect this. We actively encourage applications from systemically underrepresented groups, and those who have not been involved in research before.

Please contact Annie by email if you need any assistance completing the application form or would like to discuss alternative ways to express your interest.

5pm, Friday 15th November 2024

Please note that the McPin Foundation regularly promotes opportunities on behalf of other institutions; we are not responsible for the continuation or contents of further correspondence with any project partners where we are not listed as the project main point of contact.

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