Sharing and learning together: a blog

On a bright morning in February, a small group of people descended on Lower Marsh Farm on the edge of the Tamar for a day of sharing and learning together.

The common denominator in this group was their connection to the Peninsula Mental Health Research Initiative (PenMHRI). PenMHRI was established to support mental health research that matters to the people and places of South West England, and has two key activities: carrying out research and building capacity for research.

The folks at the farm were there because they are Research Associates, funded a day a week to work with PenMHRI on a project of their choosing, one that matters to them and their organisation.

“…the purpose of the away day was to share what they had been doing, and learn from each other and the team.”

Our Associates are; Beth, a Consultant Psychiatrist; Austin a GP and Nicola, a Psychologist and Family Therapist. Alongside them in the photo is also Mandeep, a Clinical Psychologist who we are hoping to bring on board later this year.

Over the last year we’ve been working with each of them to develop their research ideas, and the purpose of the away day was to share what they had been doing, and learn from each other and the team.

“They’re a great bunch of people to spend time with: inspirational, funny, and also excited about the potential for research to change services and improve mental health.”

With the ‘one day a week’, each Associate used their time differently: one spent it doing ethnographic style fieldwork, hanging out at a wellbeing hub to learn about how it worked and might be contributing towards reducing GP stress by providing a place to go for people whose mental health needs are too complex for primary care. Another is using it to get to grips with the literature in their field, planning to write up a review of the research which will help in their programme development. And another is using the time to develop nature based approaches in Child and Adolescent Mental Health services. And hopefully, we’ll soon be starting another Associate who is keen to use their day a week to create infrastructure for doing research within their service, looking improving mental health care for people experiencing homelessness.

At the away day, each of them spoke about their projects, sharing what they were learning and asking questions and contributing to the discussion. They’re a great bunch of people to spend time with: inspirational, funny, and also excited about the potential for research to change services and improve mental health. We look forward to sharing more about their progress in the near future.