The Peninsula Mental Health Research Initiative (PenMHRI)

Introduction

The Peninsula Mental Health Research Initiative (PenMHRI) is part of a £30 million Mental Health Research Initiative launched by the NIHR and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to help tackle the existing gap between local needs and mental health research activity. Our programme aims to establish a South West Mental Health Research Programme to promote close working with mental health services and public collaborators to build research capacity in the region.

Funded for 3 years via a £750,000 NIHR grant, it’s our aim that the programme increases the capacity of the system to deliver high quality research in mental health of direct relevance to service delivery and to improve services by better use of evidence.

We want to work with partners including those with lived experience, practitioners and organisations

to identify key areas of uncertainty which can be addressed either through research or by adapting existing evidence to improve services. We anticipate that our programme staff will work with these partners to deliver research projects and will seek external funding to address major research questions.

An important part of the programme is the new Mental Health Associates strand, which offers an opportunity for people within the local system to develop their research/improvement skills during part-time secondments where they will address important problems facing their own organisations.

Aims

Our aim is to do timely, relevant research with the people and places of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.

Our focus is on two broad populations:

• Children and young people (aged under 25) with mental health needs
• People with Mental Health needs whose needs exceed the capacity of primary care (for example due to complexity) but who are usually not considered to meet criteria for acceptance into secondary care services. People in this population are often referred to as falling into ‘The Gap’.

Activity

We are actively building relationships and connections with local mental health services, in recognition that relationships are the foundations for strong research partnerships.

We are learning that the current strains on people in the health and care system negatively impacts their ability to get involved in research: often, there is willingness, but not time for research. Even though we are making funding available to buy out staff time, lack of individuals available to join in with research is an issue which we are sensitive to, and are working to address through deepening our understanding of the contexts of mental health care locally and thinking creatively.

Objectives

PenMHRI has the following objectives:

Objective 1: To work with Mental Health services and people with lived experience to identify and prioritise key evidence gaps

Objective 2: To produce high quality Mental Health research to serve populations with the highest needs

Objective 3: To increase the skills and capacity of staff within local services, the voluntary sector and universities to generate and use evidence

Objective 4: To work with partners to facilitate service improvement based on research evidence.

Objective 5: To improve Mental Health outcomes within our region

Projects

PenMHRI Research Associates programme

Enables mental health practitioners to work on a research project that matters to them and their organisation.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Research Inspired by Service Experts: CAMHS RISE

Gathering ideas for new research questions from young people with experience of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), their parents, and clinicians.

CAMHS goes wild

The Provision of Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) using Nature Based Approaches (NBAs): staff views, experiences and integration of training.

One Mental Health Team realist evaluation project

Providing an aligned, holistic service to people in Exeter with complex lives to help improve mental health.

The SELF study

Finding out if Comprehensive School-Based Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (CSB‐DBT) is helpful for young people reporting self-harming behaviour.

Torbay Wellbeing Engagement Project Evaluation: TWEP

Evaluation of the Torbay Wellbeing Engagement Project (TWEP) – providing a low level mental health support intervention for people accessing foodbank hubs and family support services.

The South-West Community Mental Health Knowledge Mobilisation Network

An open-invite group which meet regularly to share information about the implementation of the Community Mental Health Framework For Adults And Older Adults 2019.

Redesigning neurodiversity pathways

Services are contending with rapidly growing waiting lists of children and young people waiting for ASD/ADHD assessments. Our scoping work has found that services are keen to move towards addressing needs rather than only providing diagnoses, there is a lack of evidence about what parents and young people need. Devon ICB and local clinicians subsequently identified this as a priority area and we are now working with them to conduct a larger, regional study of families’ and young people’s concerns and expectations and ensure that their new service is evidence-based and suitably evaluated.

The Realist Evaluation of changes to the Care Programme Approach

A realist evaluation of the Somerset approach to redefining the role of care coordinators and care plan approach in response to the Community Mental Health Framework for Adults and Older Adults.

The Realist Evaluation of the Community Engagement Project

A realist evaluation of the Open Mental Health ‘Community Engagement’ project to improve access and provision of mental health services to communities of identity.

Community Builders Realist evaluation

Realist Evaluation of the Community Builders Initiative.

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