The Mental Health Research Associates Programme: building capacity from the inside out.

Introduction

Despite ongoing emphasis on the importance of mental healthcare staff using and doing research, there are significant barriers that prevent progress.  These barriers include having time, resources and academic mentors who understand the local context.  A University based mental health research capacity building initiative in the South West of England developed several approaches to addressing these problems and this presentation reports on what happened.

Methods

Between 2021 and 2023, four health and care staff were recruited as Research Associates at the Peninsula Mental Health Research Initiative, a capacity building initiative between the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter, and local health and care services.  They worked with academic staff from PenARC to design a research project that was meaningful to their local work context. 

Results

Research Associates learnt skills in research design, data collection and analysis and built connections to the wider academy as well as presented their work at conferences.  Research outputs were written up and published in academic journals, as well as being used to drive local service improvement.  Two of the Research Associates are now involved in applying for research grant funding: one as a fellowship candidate, one as a  co-applicant. 

Discussion

In this session, we share our experiences as academics of working with the Research Associates.  We explain how we recruited them, negotiated their time and designed projects with them.  We also provide some insights into what worked well to support research capacity building as well as what we learnt and would do differently.