Get involved in research

• How to get involved
• NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health

How to get involved

People who have psychosis and their family members can get involved in research projects, both as participants and advisors.

Many researchers recruit through mental health services, or you can find out about some of the Institute of Psychiatry research projects looking for people willing to take part on the Institute's website.

The Institute of Psychiatry jointly co-ordinates (with the University of Manchester) the Mental Health Research Network in England. This Network is part of the National Institute for Health Research in the Department of Health and is therefore known as the ‘NIHR MHRN’.

The NIHR MHRN puts researchers at universities throughout the country in touch with NHS services and the people who use them, and supports the administration of research studies.

The Mental Health Research Network runs FACTOR (which stands for Families/Friends Together in Research), a network of family members and carers who are interested in mental health research. If you become part of the network, you will be offered opportunities to work with research professionals who are running studies in the NHS and find out how to help develop proposals for future research. You don’t need to know a lot about research to get involved. FACTOR runs Carers’ Reference Groups that meet once a month, and sends out regular information to Network members about research and events.

To find out more, email the FACTOR administrator.

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NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health

The NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) for Mental Health is run by the Institute of Psychiatry and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. The Centre is charged with ‘translational’ research – translating scientific discoveries into new treatments for people with mental health problems. The BRC carries out a lot of research into psychosis.

Part of the work of the Centre is to make sure people with mental health problems and their families and carers get involved in research projects. So, for example, a Service User Advisory Group for the Centre has been set up to make sure service user researchers are involved in studies run by the BRC. Visit the BRC website to find out more about the Centre’s work and how people are getting involved through its ‘Stakeholder Participation’ theme.