£11m programme aims to strengthen mental health care in the South West

Research by the University will explore ways to improve services for people in need and influence positive change for the UK and beyond
A photograph, supplied by Getty Images, showing a person discussing mental health concerns with a healthcare practitioner

£11m programme aims to strengthen mental health care in the South West

Research by the University will explore ways to improve services for people in need and influence positive change for the UK and beyond
How do we best address imbalances in mental health care systems?
That is the key question being asked through a major new research programme being launched in the South West.
The five-year £11million initiative will explore why care and support services for people with mental health problems are not working as effectively and efficiently as they could, and how experiences for individuals, communities and staff could be improved.
Through this, the programme team intends to develop and test solutions that ensure people are able to get the help they need, when they need it.
The programme is one of five additional Mental Health Research Groups (MHRGs) being created through an investment of almost £55million by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR).
It is being led by researchers at the University of Plymouth’s Community and Primary Care Research Centre (CPCRC) , part of the Peninsula Medical School , working with colleagues from the School of Psychology , the Plymouth Business School and CIDER – Cornwall Intellectual Disability Equitable Research . The programme also involves academic partners from the NIHR ARC South West Peninsula (PenARC) , the University of Exeter, Kings College London, the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, and the McPin Foundation.
The Mental Health Research Group will involve people accessing mental health services and community groups providing mutual support, as well as voluntary sector organisations and social and primary care providers. The four main NHS mental healthcare organisations – Livewell South West, the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Devon Partnership NHS Trust and Cornwall Foundation Trust – are also key partners.
This broad partnership will work together to agree priorities and to design the research. This collaborative embedded way of working is designed to ensure a focus on problems on the ground so that results can be fed back rapidly to decision makers and put into practice.

In recent years, our work with local partners has shown there are significant challenges for our health system, as it was not set up to manage the numbers of people coming forward with requests for help.

Mental health staff and people seeking support tell us that there are problems which need addressing, such as rejections following referral, repeated assessments and sudden discharges. Alongside this, the strengths of people seeking support, as well as community and digital assets, are not fully recognised as key parts of the whole system. We will work with people across our community and staff in services to explore what is working well and less well, building the capacity to make better decisions. This programme is well aligned both with the concerns of communities and with NHS policy – our aim is to help mental health services function well for everyone in the future.

Richard ByngProfessor Richard Byng
Professor of Primary Care Research and lead of the University’s Mental Health Research Group

Key priorities for the NIHR MHRG at the University of Plymouth

The programme builds on work carried out across the South West over the past two decades, and its aim will be to expand the scale and scope of mental health research expertise in the region.
It will focus on communities in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, initially centred around a set of research projects that pay particular attention to groups who face challenges in accessing current mental health provision, including:
  • people with serious mental health problems, who often don’t get the specialist support they need
  • people with intellectual disabilities, so we can share information about medications in fair and accessible ways
  • university students, for whom a range of opportunities outside of formal services may be important
  • communities where there is potential to improve how people support themselves and each other without needing to see a professional.
The researchers will also explore how advances in app technology might help people to understand and manage their mental health better, also enabling them to share information with services so they don't have to repeat their story every time they see someone new.

Over the last three years we have worked with lots of people to develop these ideas. This includes people with mental health problems and those who care for them, and professionals who see patients or who decide what services should be provided. All those conversations and meetings have helped us focus our research and think about tricky but important issues like ethics and equality. It has enabled us to develop a programme that will include lots of ways for lots of people to get involved – with some advising, some collecting and analysing data, and some sharing findings.

Rebecca HardwickDr Rebecca Hardwick
NIHR South West Peninsula ARC (PenARC) Senior Research Fellow and co-lead for the new Mental Health Research Group programme

A national investment in mental health research

The Plymouth programme is one of five additional Mental Health Research Groups (MHRGs) being created through an investment of almost £55million by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR)
The areas targeted by the NIHR for this funding have high levels of mental health problems, for example, some have higher suicide rates, or higher levels of deprivation and severe mental health diagnoses.
The new MHRGs will lead on research to reduce inequalities in mental health provision, reaching people who rarely take part in research studies, and the research will be embedded in local communities and focused on locally-identified mental health priorities.
Successful applicants had to show clearly how they had worked with local community or patient groups, as well as other stakeholders, to identify these priorities.

Mental health challenges can be isolating, especially for people in some of our most under-served regions. Community allows us to tackle isolation. By moving our research focus out of traditional clinical settings and directly into the areas where people live and work, we are driving a fundamental shift toward a more preventative model of care in the community. We are committed to ensuring that the latest innovations and support reach those who need it most, long before they reach a crisis point.

Professor Lucy Chappell
Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Chief Executive Officer of the NIHR

University staff involved in this project

 

Read about some of our NIHR funded projects

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A photograph, supplied by Getty Images, showing a person discussing mental health concerns with a healthcare practitioner
 

Mental health research in our Community and Primary Care Research Centre (CPCRC)

People with mental health disorders often encounter serious difficulties in their lives - our research seeks to address issues around quality of life for those from a variety of backgrounds, while putting patient and public involvement at the heart of what we do.
Primary Care DESTRESS Getty541975802, credit:g-stockstudio, Close-up on discussion.
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CIDER – Cornwall Intellectual Disability Equitable Research

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Plymouth Business School

A psychological student conducting brain research

School of Psychology