July 1, 2026
Once again, the Mental Health in Development (MHID) team were excited to join the annual Healthcare Research Showcase at Oxford’s Westgate Centre. Representatives from the Parent Carer Research Network and the WISDOM Schools Research Network manned the stand on Thursday May 28 2026, one of the hottest days of the year!
This event aims to spread awareness to the public about healthcare-related research taking place to improve treatment and care for a range of conditions. As usual, the showcase took place during half term which means that a large number of families with children were among the visitors.
This showcase is an opportunity to encourage people to get involved in research and make them aware of the different methods of participation whether by joining in trials, helping to design studies or, as in the case with Mental Health in Development, by joining in one of our research networks.
For the MHID team, we hoped especially to connect with school staff, families, parents and carers to explain about the work we do and to break down barriers which people may believe prevent them from getting involved in research.
This involved talking about what they believed research might involve and and letting them know about how our networks aim to help people feel more welcomed and included in the research process.
Shanta Raj, Public & Patient Engagement and Involvement (PPIE) Facilitator for MHID, said:
‘Throughout the day I heard powerful stories about the growing challenges and pressures facing children and families in the world today and the need for relevant research about mental health to reflect and support these experiences.’
It was also a great opportunity to connect with children and young people to help them understand some of the work that we do. For this, we hosted a zines activity to help children and young people recognise their Character Strengths. Character strengths are positive traits like kindness, resilience, creativity, and courage. It was brilliant to see children and young people engage with this activity and reflect on their individual strengths.
Children of all ages enjoyed completing the zines. They liked doing it on their own or with the help of their sibling. The children often brainstormed aloud and started listing how they felt they had a strength such as “I’m kind to my friends when they are sad” and “I show teamwork when I play in my football team”.
Imogen Hensler, a researcher from our team supporting the stall, noted that the parents also appreciated the zines activity. She said:
‘A mother noted how much she liked the concept of the zines, as her child had recently been diagnosed with autism. She explained that much of the information she had received focused on the difficulties her child was expected to experience, which felt quite negative. She consequently really liked the ethos of the zines as strength based and took one home for her child to complete in their own time.’
We received an overwhelmingly positive response from the people whom we spoke with on the day. It was very encouraging to hear so many people describe the value that they place on youth mental health research and we look forward to welcoming them to our networks to improve access to research for schools and families.