6th IMH Research Day: Emma Joyes

The 6^th IMH Research Day was held on 22^nd May 2018. The event highlighted the work of the Institute’s doctoral candidates, Managed Innovation Networks (MINs), and all early-career researchers (including research assistants, research fellows, and research-active clinicians). Topics included Dementia care, Autism, ADHD, ASD, student and workplace mental health, experiences of breast cancer survivors, co-production of well-being tools, Forensic Mental Health, mental health and recovery narratives, just to name a few! All of which contributed to current debates within mental health care.

The Plenary Speaker at this year’s event was Professor Anne Rogers (Professor of Health Systems Implementation, University of Southampton) who’s presentation was titled ‘‘Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose’?: reflections on past and future research in mental health’. Professor Rogers reminded us of our responsibility as researchers to think critically about mental healthcare by looking beyond the medical model and focusing on what is valuable to individuals.

Katherine Dyke presented on the IMH blog and reminded researchers to develop their online profile through the blog. Kat reminded us of the importance of communicating our research through a range of mediums. Contributing to the IMH blog also valuably contributes to ‘Engagement, influence and impact’ section of the Research Excellence Framework. You can write a blog for the IMH – see the ‘contribute’ tab for more details.

Dave Waldram hosted a talk on the Public & Patient Involvement (PPI) support available to PhD students. Dave is willing to support students in the following ways:

• Review of documentation such as (draft) study proposal, lay (plain English) summary, patient Information. For best results it requires more than one (PP) person
• Having a conversation with them about the project & applying my prospective & experiences
• Expanding their networking capabilities, especially in the Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) domain
• Help with other areas of the research process if required

Please contact Dave Waldram if you would like to discuss PPI support for your project: Dave.Waldram@ntlworld.com

We hosted a spectacular range of 27 oral presentations and 15 poster presentations. The winners of our ‘best oral presentation’ prizes were Melanie Narayanasamy, Anni Bailey, and Katie Turner. The ‘best poster presentation prize’ was awarded to Reem Aldabbagh. Congratulations to our prize winners.

Artwork by Fred Higton

With special thanks to Professor Mike Slade, Fred Higton, Dr Elena Nixon, Professor David Daley, Dr Melanie Jordan, and Professor Peter Bartlett who sat on the expert judging panel. Professor Peter Bartlett commended the high quality of all the presentations which featured at this year’s event, which made the task of judging ever more challenging. Finally, a warm thank you to Karen Sugars who works extremely hard behind the scenes ensuring the day runs smoothly.

Thank you to all those who presented and attended. It was great to see so many of you there.

The 7^th IMH Research Day planning is currently underway and will be held on Tuesday 21st May 2019. Call for abstracts will be circulated later in the year.

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