Physical health and long term mental illness version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
To gain service users perspective and understanding of their physical health risks and needs in the context of severe and enduring mental illness.
IRAS ID
117378
Contact name
Elizabeth Collier
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Salford
Research summary
The piece of research will be done with service users diagnosed with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bi-Polar affective disorder that are currently residents of or attending mental health rehabilitation services. All of the service users that volunteer to participate in the study will need to have capacity to make fully informed decision about participating in the study. This will be clarified by the responsible consultant for each potential participant prior to signing consent for the study. This piece of research will gain an in-depth service user perspective and understanding of physical health needs for people with a diagnosis of mental illness. The researcher will use these results to pilot a series of education sessions in a practice development context and/or resources to address the most pertinent needs identified by service users in order to address the needs or concerns of service users in relation to physical illness. Using a qualitative research methods approach, focus groups interviews will be conducted in order to gain knowledge of key themes. Due to the focus groups being a group of service users it is felt that some participants may feel uncomfortable when discussing their own health issues as part of a group. Therefore a vignette will be used so that the group discussion in the focus group can be more generalised and allow participants to give theoretical responses to prevent unnecessary distress in the group setting. These focus groups will be followed up with individual interviews to gain participant’s personal view and perspective in greater detail and obtain a clearer understanding of themes highlighted in the focus groups. Analysis of the findings from the data collected will be done using a thematic analysis approach to gain a sense of and understanding of the key findings that emerge from the data collected.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/NW/0419
Date of REC Opinion
24 Jul 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion