National Institute for Health and Care Research

Highlights from our Mental Health in Development Team Meeting: November 2024

January 7, 2025

For our Autumn Team Meeting, we were on home turf in New Radcliffe House. Another welcome opportunity to catch up with colleagues across Mental Health in Development and make connections as we move forward.

A key focus of this month’s meeting was on Research Inclusion and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). These are key points of focus for us over the next year, particularly given that inclusive research design is a condition of funding. The aim is to ensure those who are underserved and underrepresented in research are visible and considered in our research design and practice 

We need to consider previous equalities research and consultation 

  • What are the inequalities that exist in terms of children & young people’s mental health? 
  • Are there poorer health outcomes for certain groups of children and young people? 
  • Which groups are historically and currently under-represented in research and services? 

We had a panel discussion chaired by Roisin Mooney, with contributions from Professor Cathy Creswell, Melissa Stepney, Olivia Taylor from the University of York and Renal Patel, one of our steering group members from our Parent Carer Research Network. They shared their thoughts on the barriers to inclusion and how best to overcome them. From there, we moved into groups to explore these issues in further detail.

We discussed the protected health characteristics which we know can affect health inequalities such as age, disabilities, pregnancy/maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation. We also recognised those marginalised due to socio-economic status and employment status, geographic location, migrant status, homelessness and those who are carers.

In groups, we discussed the inequalities which are relevant to our work and how we can identify the groups of people who are not being included as well as what the likely impact of this would be. We also discussed how best we can offer support realistically within the limits of time and budget.

We noted certain demographics that have been missing and so considered what might be the barriers to them reaching us. The aim is to be driven by data rather than by impressions, so that the data can make any gaps clear in very obvious ways. It was agreed that one does not need to go via a school to connect with young people and that there are lots of partner organisations outside the academic context who can help us link up.

Even within schools, the children participating are perhaps not diverse. Language can be a problem when it comes to recruitment. Solutions suggested included translated information sheets and making videos in the target language to explain involvement.

Another important point within school recruitment was reaching out to pupils with low school attendance. It is important to distinguish between absenteeism and school refusal. The school may be aware of the patterns and be able to assist with reaching out.

One group pointed out different communication styles, particularly for non-verbal children. Making videos and including parents and carers can help children to feel in tune with our work. It was noted though that among autistic children, those who take part in research are often not representative of the autistic community. They might need support in reading the material, or using public transport in order to attend a workshop. We need to offer support to help them to get to the table so that they can be included!

Across the team, we could see that this was a practical challenge that we were all reflecting on how to approach. We agreed that moving forward, a key action will be to share ideas to improve practice across the project and make our projects as inclusive as possible.

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