Partners in projects: training service users as researchers

This oral presentation will briefly describe how the Centre for Health & Well-being Research [CHWR] at the University of Northampton has undertaken research training with four groups of participants who might be considered to be vulnerable within the previous 18 months. The presentation will briefly summarise 4 research projects which have involved an element of research training in the project design. The first project incorporated the delivery of research training to a group of people with a learning disability, alongside a group of qualified nurses, in order to develop a joint research proposal in which the individuals with a learning disability would work as co-researchers. The design of the second project specifically required the training of a group of young people to conduct a series of focus groups in a teenage pregnancy project. The third project, which was commissioned by an independent medium secure mental health hospital, involved providing research training to a group of formally detained female patients so they can work together to identify and develop a research project which can be undertaken within the service. The final project incorporates two training workshops with young people in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in developing research awareness into its design. As an outcome of all of these projects, CHWR has developed a certificated/non-certificated educational module in research training for peer researchers which has successfully completed its first pilot with ten user/carer volunteers. This paper will summarise the structure and content of the research training which has been developed within the Centre, and which has been adapted as appropriate to meet the specific needs of each user group. Ultimately, the overall aim has been to train and develop a group of peer researchers who can confidently and actively contribute to or lead their own research projects.