Be a part of research

The clinical and cost-effectiveness of Stimulant compared with Non-stimulant medication for adults with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and a history of Psychosis or biPolar disordER: SNAPPER.

Age: 18 years and over

What’s involved? The 1^st study visit will be 3-4 hours. This will involve seeking your consent and answering a series of questions in the form of an interview about your mental health and ADHD. Following this, you will be randomised (a 50/50 chance) to receive one of 2 routinely prescribed medications for ADHD. There will be regular contact with your clinical team for the 1^st four months: every 1-2 weeks, or as clinically required, to review your medication, Blood Pressure and pulse. There will be a further 4 visits with a researcher (at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months) including questions about your mental health and ADHD. These visits will take up to 90 minutes each. You will receive a £25 voucher after your 1^st visit and a further £25 voucher after completing each of your 6 and 12 months visits.

Location:  Own home, clinic, telephone or Zoom/Microsoft Teams.

Info about the study: This trial aims to find out how effective a stimulant medication is compared to a non-stimulant medication in patients who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and also have a history of either psychosis or bipolar.

Who can be involved?

• Person with a diagnosis of psychosis or bipolar disorder who also have a diagnosis of ADHD
• Open to Adult Mental Health Services
• Not currently (or within the last month) on medication for ADHD
• *there are other eligibility criteria which we can discuss further with you.

If you are interested in learning more email: researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk or sign up to our REACH database.

Looking for: Practioners who support 16-25 year olds

Location: Online

Duration: 10-20 mins

Info about the study: 

Do you support young people aged 16-25? Could you help young people’s mental health research by completing a short (10-20 mins) online survey to share your views about supporting social connectedness for young people?

The Together study is looking for practitioners who support young people aged 16-25 years to take part in a short online survey.

Taking part will help researchers to learn whether future research should continue to explore the benefits of social connectedness in young people's mental health.

What will taking part involve?

Taking part will involve completing a short online survey that will take approximately 10-20 minutes to complete. The survey will ask you questions about:

• Yourself and your professional experience
• Your views on supporting young people with mental health problems to increase their social connectedness

Contact the research team...

If you have any questions about the study, please contact the research team using the details below (Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm):

Researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk
01603 421397

Need more information? Willing to take part?

Please follow this Universtiy of Sussex link to take part in the study here.

Looking for: Young people aged 7-12 years old and their parents/carers

Location: Flexible (own home, clinic, online or telephone)

Duration: Up to 90 minutes

Aims: There are already treatments for childhood anxiety that we know work well but there can sometimes be long waits to access these treatments. ‘Lumi Nova: Tales of Courage’ is a new game-based digital therapy that aims to reduce anxiety symptoms, such as feelings of worry, fear and unease, in 7–12 year olds. We want to find out whether Lumi Nova meets the needs of young people from groups who may face extra barriers to accessing mental health care. You don't necessarily need to have used Lumi Nova to take part.

What does the study involve? We would like to speak to children and their families about their views and/or experiences of Lumi Nova and other similar digital therapies. Taking part would involve a one-off discussion with a researcher lasting up to 90 minutes. Each participating family member will receive a £10 shopping voucher of their choice as a thank you for their time.

If you would like more details about the study or would like to get involved, please contact the research team by emailing i-digit@nsft.nhs.uk

Looking for: Healthcare professionals, service manager or commissioners with experience of digital technologies for mental health treatment in children and young people

Location: Online

Duration: Up to 90 minutes

Aims: This study aims to explore how healthcare professionals, service managers and commissioners view the use of digital technologies within children and young people’s mental health services, learn about barriers to and facilitators of adopting new digital technologies, and to understand how any barriers could potentially be overcome.

What does the study involve? We will invite participants to take part in an online focus group to share their views alongside other professionals.

If you would like more details about the study or would like to get involved, please contact the research team by emailing i-digit@nsft.nhs.uk

Age: 18-65

Interview: 1 x online or face to face interview on your experience of the discharge process from mental health wards.

Location: online or face to face

Info about the study : Around 50,000 people leave mental healthcare hospitals every year. Being discharged from mental health inpatients is high risk in terms of relapse, readmission, and suicide. Many find the process of discharge overwhelming, and it is a key point in personal recovery for service users. Poorly planned discharge can lead to increased risks - 13% of service users are readmitted shortly after discharge and 32% of suicides occur in the first 2-weeks after discharge.

However, healthcare systems are complicated and there are many reasons which contribute to negative experiences of discharge. Therefore, we believe understanding these complicated factors is fundamental for us to improve the outcomes and experiences of those being discharged from mental health hospitals.

What the interview aims to explore: The aim of the MINDS study is to understand and improve the outcomes and experiences of people being discharged from mental health wards. Therefore, the interview aims to explore your experiences of being discharged from a mental health ward or caring for someone who has recently been discharged or involvement in the discharge process through your working role. We are really keen to hear the voices of everyone involved in the discharge process and the information collected during the interview will contribute to our understanding and improvement of the discharge process.

Who can be involved?

• Service users, carers, and staff who have experience of discharge.
• Service users aged between 18-65 years.
• Recruiting people who have been discharged in the last 12-months and are still under care of NSFT.
• Carers of someone who has been discharged in the last 12-months.
• Staff who are involved in the patient discharge process.

The interview can be remote or in person and service users or carers also get paid £10 to reimburse them for their time and staff will receive a 1.5hours CPD certificate for their time.

If you would like to participate in the study or find out any further information, please visit our website or contact us via email:

Website: MINDS study | Norfolk and Suffolk NHS (nsft.nhs.uk)

Email: minds.project@nsft.nhs.uk

Please also visit our dedicated MINDs study page MINDS study | Norfolk and Suffolk NHS (nsft.nhs.uk)

Age: 16-30 

Visits: 1 x online survey on service user views on digital health promotion in youth mental health.

Location: online 

Info about the study: People with mental health conditions have higher risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases compared to the general population. Alongside this, living with mental health conditions may have a negative impact on people’s lifestyles, for instance making it difficult to exercise frequently, have a healthy diet, or quit smoking. This also increases the risk of physical diseases in people living with mental health conditions.
Therefore, improving the physical health and lifestyle of those treated for mental health conditions is a current priority for healthcare services. While digital technologies (such as smartphones) could play a role in this, there is currently little understanding of how this might work best in mental healthcare.

What the survey aims to explore: As someone with experience in living with mental health conditions, the study team is particularly interested in your  opinions around:
(i) Existing mobile apps for physical health/lifestyle,
(ii) How mobile health (or ‘mHealth’) could best be used for assessing physical health or improving lifestyle, and
(iii) Things which might make it easier or harder to use mHealth for promoting physical health in young adults with mental health conditions.
This survey will contribute towards informing an ongoing research project around using of digital technologies in improving the physical health for young people treated for mental health conditions.
 

Who can be involved?
• Participants aged between 16-30 years old and who have received a diagnosis from a doctor or healthcare professional for a mental health condition (e.g., depression, anxiety, psychosis, bipolar disorder, or another diagnosis).
• Participants who currently receive any healthcare or treatment (e.g., medications or therapy) for a mental health condition. 

If you would like to participate or get more information about the study, please use the link below, here:

https://redcap.link/AppSurvey2021  or email researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk

Age: 16-25 

Location: online 

ANSWERS is an observational cohort study, aiming to collect in-depth health and social data across multiple timepoints with 250 representative young people with mental health needs across Norfolk and Suffolk.

The information collected will provide us with data about what is important to young people, what helps and impacts their mental wellbeing from social, educational and neighbourhood perspectives, and how this relates to health service use and need.

The information we find will be anonymously and continually shared with all healthcare organisations involved in supporting the mental health needs of young people, including NHS Trusts, social care, public health and voluntary organisations to help them support young people.  

The study will be open to recruitment in January 2022, but in the meantime you can express interest in taking part in the study by signing up to the REACH research database to be contacted when the study opens: REACH

By signing up to REACH you will be given a choice of two ways to become involved:

1. Become part of the ANSWERS Young person’s advisory group and help steer and manage the project to make sure that we are asking the right questions

or

2. Become a participant by completing online questionnaires at regular intervals about all aspects of your life and how they impact your mental wellbeing.

Age: 16 +

Duration: 5 - 10 minutes online survey

Location: Norfolk and Suffolk 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been reports that many people need additional support to regularly access and afford food.

We want to find out how many people who have mental health needs in Norfolk and Suffolk are unable to regularly access or afford food or are worried about it. This will help inform a more coordinated approach to identifying food access needs and signposting to helpful organisations.

This survey is entirely voluntary and is open to everyone over the age of 16 who may have mental health needs and/or may worry about accessing or affording food.

We do not ask any personal information in the survey, but there are some general questions about background so we can find out which groups of people are more likely to need food support.

Once we have enough responses, the survey results will be published on the Trust website – we are hoping that this will be in Summer 2021. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk

The survey can be accessed here.

Age 16 +

Duration: Up to one hour

Location: One off online questionnaire and optional test

GLAD stands for the genetic links to anxiety and depression. The study is a project set up to support research exploring risk factors for depression and/or anxiety.

The GLAD study aims to better understand depression and anxiety to find more effective treatments. It hopes to improve the lives of people experiencing these disorders.

GLAD is a national study with its own specialist website. Please remember if you found out about the study from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust then be sure to put that when asked to ‘select the NHS trust, GP, talking therapy service or other healthcare provider’.

Register your interest on the GLAD website

Age: 18-70

Duration: 15 mins

Visits: One off visit and blood sample.

Location: Norfolk and Suffolk

This national study is targeting patients suffering from psychosis. It is looking to see if there is a link between having special membrane antibodies and their illness.

Who can be involved?

• those experiencing a current episode of psychosis lasting less than 2 years. This can be a first episode or relapse
• aged between 18-70 years
• willing to provide a blood sample

If you are interested in learning more email: researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk (Norfolk and Suffolk only)

For further information visit the national website  and choose Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

Register your interest