Over the last few months I’ve been working with MindTech on a collaborative project which seeks to discover the top ten research priorities for digital technology for mental health. It’s a really exciting project and I very much hope that lots of Mental Elf readers and followers are able to take part.
All we want is a few minutes of your time to complete a short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DigitalMHQ
Digital technology for mental health: why is this project important?
We know that huge opportunities to transform mental health care are offered by the internet, online services and the wide range of digital technologies, including ‘cutting edge’ innovations such as virtual reality, avatars and robots. But we need to do more research to understand better the impacts of these new technologies and how to use them in the best way.
The ‘Asking the right questions’ project seeks to understand what the most important research questions are in this area. To make sure the questions are grounded in the everyday experience of mental health, we want to hear from people with lived experience of mental health problems and health and social professionals. You don’t need to be an expert in technology to take part – we need to understand what everyone thinks about this issue.
By working with the James Lind Alliance, we are using their established methodology to gather in the questions and then work collaboratively to decide which matter the most. We will then widely publicise the top ten questions so that researchers and research funders will see which areas of research deserve priority attention.
Get involved now: we need to hear your views
- Complete the survey now! https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DigitalMHQ
- Find out more about the project: mindtech.org.uk/digitalMHQ
- Follow the project on Twitter: #digitalMHQ
- To be kept up-to-date contact the Project Manager Lucy Simons: lucy.simons@nottingham.ac.uk
This project is co-funded by: Mental Health Foundation; MQ Transforming mental health through research; NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre; McPin Foundation; Mental Health Intelligence and Leadership Programme, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Health, University of Sheffield; Nesta, mHabitat; University Counselling Service, University of Sheffield.
[…] Back in the Spring when we asked for your questions about Digital Technology for Mental Health, we didn’t know how many people would respond or how many questions they would have. We now know that over 600 people had around 1,500 questions! Wow – that’s a lot! And we want to first say a big thank you for letting us know what is important about this growing area of mental health care and support. […]