Mental Health Hub

We have focused on addressing areas of mental ill health linked to our deprived rural and coastal communities: neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g. attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), treatment resistant anxiety-depression, addiction (alcohol and gambling); as well as supporting front line workers (addressing knowledge gaps in paramedics, social prescribing framework for link workers). Building on our prior work we have: 

 

• Increased involvement of public and people affected by mental health issues in mental health research. For example, we now have in excess of 300 public contributors per year who have joined our gambling research database via our digital tool and have established a gambling Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) that has already contributed substantially to grant applications and informing service improvements. 
   

• Increased our joint working with our Mental Health Public Advisor, into multiple extension research projects and regional grant submissions, contributing to a successful application for NIHR Advanced Fellowship and application to ARC competition.
   

• Expanded PPIE activities via our partnership with Raising Voices in Research (RViR). For example, an innovative scheme has matched voluntary and charity organisations with researchers, covering marginalised groups such as older adults, military veterans, men with mental health conditions, and young neurodiverse people. 
   

• Discovered new important findings for treatment of ADHD; notably the finding (paper submitted) that ADHD with co-morbid autism responds preferentially to a particular type of medication (atomoxetine). 
   

• Secured additional funding to sustain research in areas of focus. For example, the AUD in Older Adults project has led to a Leverhulme/British Academy research grant (“Alcohol Research? No thanks”), a University of Southampton seed award (“Our Voice Matters: Older People, Stigma & Alcohol”), and Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT-4) grant (“Evaluation of VCia’s Capital Card Scheme”). In addition, secured three UKRI rapid evidence review grants, and a Partnership grant, for research into gambling-related harms.