Changing the future of mental health care
If we want to progress in the care of mental health, it is impossible without change.
I’m Wendy Andrusjak, the Research Programme Manager for Leeds and York Partnership mental health trust. Due to research, our service users are offered the future of healthcare today. Currently that includes research looking at: new therapy opportunities aiming to prevent recurring self-harm; new techniques that people living with Severe Mental Illnesses can use to self-manage their diabetes; and even the repurposing of Sertraline to attempt to alleviate anxiety in people living with autism. These are just a few opportunities open to our service users because the research behind them is being implemented in our trust.
Our Health Care Support Workers, Nurses, Doctors, Allied Health Professionals, and Trainees are actively involved in referring and delivering interventions for our research studies, and it is their input that helps drive our research forward. Our service users who participate in our research contribute to the evidence required to make judgements on the future care we provide in the NHS. Without these service users, our clinical staff, and our collaborations with other trusts and universities, we wouldn’t be able to improve mental health care as effectively as we are able.
Whilst the new research and healthcare strategies for the nation highlight the importance of embedding research into clinical practice, mental health trusts are not as far advanced in training our staff as what can be seen in acute trusts. However, we hope to change that. Like many mental health trusts, we are attempting to ensure that our clinical staff are offered training in research that is easily accessible to them, develops their skills, and improves their patient care.
One such opportunity being developed in our trust is the Research Activity Opportunities Programme, initially designed for student nurses to take part in whilst on clinical placement. This is to be piloted in a number of trusts across the nation in 2023 but has proven to be exceptionally beneficial so far in our trust. It aims to give students the practical training and experience of what research in the NHS is like, overcoming the theory and practice gap currently seen between their nursing degree and clinical work. They can gain qualifications, experience hands-on delivery of research to their service users, become involved in developing the research currently active in the trust, attend meetings with the research team to understand how research is set-up and delivered in the NHS, and much more. And all this is embedded into their clinical placement, rather than in addition to.
Given the interest and benefits we have already observed from students and even staff, we are hoping this becomes a standard opportunity open to all mental health staff and students from varying professions. By ensuring all staff are effectively trained in research ensures that our service users have greater access to the knowledge of what relevant research is available to them, increasing their opportunities to learn about research and take part. With the support of NHS England, the NIHR, and the interest of other mental health trusts and universities, we are hoping to use such strategies to embed research into clinical care as standard, ensuring England is at the forefront of research delivery and training.