Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Group

NIHR Maudsley BRC is setting up an Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Group for young people who have experience of mental health problems or caring for someone with mental health problems, to meet with researchers to discuss their projects, and improve the quality of mental health research studies.

The group is open to young people aged 12 – 17 years old, and will meet once every school holiday, 1-4pm at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Denmark Hill. Group members will be given lunch and paid for their travel. They will also be paid £20 as thanks for their expertise, and giving up their time.

Each session will include researchers talking about their projects and asking for the group's advice on how to improve them. There will also be an interactive activity, to demonstrate some of the approaches and techniques that are being used in mental health research such as using virtual reality, extracting DNA from some fruit, or measuring brain activity with an EEG or MRI.

The group is set up by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and is funded by the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London.

The main aims of the group are to:

• Increase awareness of current and future research into young people’s mental health.
• Provide a voice for young service users/carers in mental health research.
• Identify and share good practice in service user and carer involvement.
• Act as a point of contact for researchers seeking Patient and Carer Involvement and Engagement (PCIE) on studies relating to young people.
• Collaborate with the wider NIHR family and charities on specific projects.

Dr. Charlotte Tye, one of the group's facilitators, said: “We are looking for young people with experience of mental health problems, personally or through someone they are close to, to help shape research about mental health. We need your perspective on how research projects should be explained, designed and reported. By working with you and seeing research through your eyes, we can make sure research makes a positive difference to young people with mental health problems.”

If you are interested in becoming a member, please fill out the interest form below and we will be in touch: Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Group interest form

How researchers can access our expertise

We invite anybody conducting research related to young people’s mental health who would like advice and support on their project to attend one of our meetings.

If you would like to come and present at one of our meetings or if you would like to provide a demonstration or fun educational activity, please contact Catia at ado-advisorygroup@kcl.ac.uk

The Ado Group reviews research projects of all shapes and sizes, and at a variety of different stages. Most researchers come to the Ado Group before applying for funding, or before writing an ethics application in order to get advice on data collection procedures, but other examples of how the Ado Group can help include:

• Commenting on the feasibility of research projects
• Helping researchers with language and jargon
• Assessing whether a project will be attractive to young people or not (and why)
• Reviewing research documents for user-friendliness
• Testing websites, apps and computer games
• Developing a sustainable Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) strategy
• Advising on dissemination and sharing findings with young people