ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Coastal and Rural Mental Health Realist Study (CARMHRS) is a 28-month project exploring the ways that people who live in coastal and rural areas look after their mental health and how local mental health services are helping them.
Mental health services in remote coastal and rural areas present challenges both for the people who live in these areas and for the organisations who provide the services. For people who need the services, many challenges relate to poverty, inadequate housing and transport links, and services that do not meet their social and other needs. As well as responding to these issues, service providers face other difficulties relating to staff shortages, poor digital infrastructure and transport infrastructure, and the need to provide standard services, including emergency responses, across large geographical areas. The aims of the CARMHRS study are:
1. To improve community mental health systems in Coastal and Rural (CAR) areas by assessing the impact of strategies (such as the Community Mental Health Framework), implemented in CAR regions on improving the accessibility and acceptability of mental health care services for people living there.
2. To facilitate a Community of Practice to co-produce a Guide to improving accessibility and acceptability of mental health care services in CAR areas.
The sites are Integrated health care systems (ICS) in CAR areas (Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly, Lincolnshire, and North East and North Cumbria) with two case studies per site, selected by low-income low population density neighbourhoods and related to Primary Care Networks. The fieldwork for this role will be based in the North East and North Cumbria region, exact locations to be decided.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are looking for a multi-skilled and applied mental health researcher, with experience in knowledge mobilisation and research management. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you will support the Principal Investigator in delivering research activities for the above NIHR funded project exploring how people living in coastal and rural areas look after their mental health and respond to changes from services designed to better meet their needs.
You will be a 'researcher-in-residence', embedded in two local mental health teams in the North-East and North Cumbria region, using qualitative research skills, and working ethnographically to understand how that area is meeting the needs of people from coastal and rural communities. You will work alongside a Community Researcher, who will be researching how local communities are responding to service changes, and as a pair, you will be responsible for developing patient, public and involvement in the project, as well as for data collection (non-participant observation, realist interviews and focus groups, document review) and analysis (realist evaluation). You will also be part of a wider national team and will contribute towards the national Community of Practice for the study.
This is an ideal opportunity for an excellent Research Fellow, keen to work in a supportive context that will enable them to achieve change for mental health care services and people with lived experience and take the next step in their career. You will be actively supported to develop your own research career whilst working with us, including support towards grant writing and publication. As a team we prioritise mental health - both our own and others - and we take positive steps to maintaining a good balance in all things, including work.
The post is a part-time position working 22.2 hours per week, on a fixed-term basis for 21 months from the start date.
The days of the week these hours can be worked can be discussed at interview or on notification to the successful applicant. Weekend/evening working may be required occasionally.
This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 therefore the successful candidate will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check.
ABOUT THE TEAM ABOUT YOU
Applicants should hold a PhD or equivalent international qualification or commensurate level of recognition/international profile/experience in a relevant discipline. You will also have demonstrable specialist expert knowledge of the issues to do with mental health for people living and providing services in coastal and or rural areas. You will have knowledge of co-production and community engagement approaches in the context of mental health service improvement and/or research, and knowledge of realist methodology and methods, researcher-in-residence and ethnographic methodologies of inquiry.