With the people, for the people: applying mental health research

From campus to community, the worlds of mental health research and medical practice are being brought together by a collaboration involving researchers, health and social care providers, and the patients themselves. When you have liaised with the consumer very early on, you know that their question is your question and they're eager for your results." - —Professor Peter Jones Imagine a 17-year-old man with a learning disability arriving in A&E with suspected appendicitis. By the time he's been treated, he will have navigated a system complex enough to challenge anyone. A web of interactions will have been woven involving A&E, surgery, social services and mental health services, and complicated by the fact that, at 17, the young man faces transition from adolescent to adult services. Professor Peter Jones, Director of the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (CLAHRC CP), cites this young man as an example of one of the many highly vulnerable people who must traverse what he describes as pinch points in mental health services: "such gaps, despite vast efforts on the part of those carrying out the services, can sometimes place individuals with mental health problems in an impossible situation." Each year, around one in four adults in Britain will experience some kind of mental health problem, a condition that also affects children and the elderly. CLAHRC CP, a five-year, £23 million collaboration between the University of Cambridge, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and six health and social care providers (see panel), is focusing applied health research on the urgent needs of patients at the front end of mental health service delivery.