How has PPI changed the project?
“The public voice is essential in mental health research because of the different perspectives to the professionals that they bring to the research. Often the professional researcher changes their proposal after listening to lay members. I think the lay member voices at the University or Herts lay member panel has enriched their research, and it has been great for my confidence. Listening to how the research progresses over the months at our meetings has been very fulfilling and it has been great to be part of the research projects from the beginning. ”
Member of PHIRST Connect, National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS), public voice group (new to research, public involvement)
‘I became involved through the NERS programme and I had a very positive experience that has allowed me to greatly improve my quality of life . Being involved in PHIRST seeing other PPI opinions has made me appreciate that while most people have a good experience and outcome there can be barriers to full engagement and it is very interesting to see things from other perspectives and viewpoints.’
Darren Lyons- ex user rep for Criminal Justice Pathways in Nottinghamshire
“At the start I was unsure of the contribution I could make to this programme and apprehensive about being involved. Working as part of this programme has allowed me to feel that I have been able to provide a unique perspective based on my life experiences as an ex-user. Working with so many different people from some many different back grounds has been a positive experience for myself and I am proud to have been a part of this project.”
“Being able to add my perspective and to help shape the outcome of this project has meant I believe that all strands of this end to end process have been considered to allow this to have the maximum positive effect on people’s lives.”
“Lots of small inputs, create a large positive output”
Nicholas is a qualitative researcher, who is working on delivering qualitative elements of various PHIRST Fusion project evaluations. His main research interests revolve around topics related to young people’s health, leisure and health inequalities. Nicholas has a background working as a practitioner in the fields of youth offending, child and adolescent mental health, and adult recovery and substance misuse. His PhD research focused on the risk perceptions and substance use practices of young people.
Dr. Jo Williams is a Consultant in Public Health at Bristol City Council, representing the Director of Communities and Public Health, Christina Gray. She is the academic lead for the local authority team, and has an honorary contract with University of Bristol to support and enable building the research interface with local authority public health policy and practice.
Steve Strong is a member of the PHIRST Management Group and has been a public contributor since retiring 4 years ago. Previously he had a career in Health and Social Care Management and has a special interest in equality, diversity and inclusion in relation to public contribution in research issues.
Claire James is a member of the PHIRST Management Group and serves on several Public Health Research panels, strategy & steering groups. She uses her experience in Public Partnership Involvement to advise public health research strategies and believes effective public health research has a crucial role in improving health and wellbeing and in improving public services.
Margaret Kyle is the administrator at PHIRST Connect.
Jacqui Cannon is a public collaborator with the PHIRST LiLaC team and member of PHIRST LiLaC’s steering group.
She has been involved with The Lewy Body Society, a dementia charity for 10 years, as a volunteer whilst continuing to work as a Senior IT Business Analyst in the financial services sector and the last 6 years on a full-time basis. She is a former carer for her father who lived with Lewy body and her mother who lived with fibrosis of the lungs and other health conditions.
She is chair of Wigan Borough Dementia Friendly Community and is a Greater Manchester Champion for Join Dementia Research, which helps to recruit participants for research studies and drug trials.
Timothy Wilson is a public collaborator with the PHIRST LiLaC team and member of PHIRST LiLaC’s steering group. He is also a public advisor with the Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast. His aim is (i) to provide input for enhancing research in mental health, public health and health and social related issues.; (ii) advocate for social models of health, equity and upstream public health and (iii) tackle the causes of the causes, inequities and poverty and lack of investment in public services particularly around preventative public and social health. He has been involved in all stages of research and undertaken many roles with critical input. He is also experienced in communicating health issues and listening to people in the local community.
For many years Tim worked as a manual and physical therapist and researcher undertaking commissions around public health/mental health. He has also taught in Higher Education on numerous health topics and worked as a public health inspector.
Tim is currently a member of Revision 2012-present (mental health alliance, promoting a social model of mental health). His roles include facilitating a reading and discussion group, writing articles, editor of quarterly ‘revision news’ community networking and public speaking at conferences.
Irum Durrani is the public involvement lead for PHIRST LiLaC with Jennie Popay. She also works part-time with the Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast as a public adviser deputy Co-lead for the Implementation & Capacity Building (IMPACT) theme and recently joined the Clinical Research Network North West Coast (CRN NWC) as a Research Engagement Officer to support the Research Engagement Team in promoting research within wider communities.
Irum is a part of LMOS, a local charity tackling food poverty in Liverpool through feeding the low income groups, asylum seekers and refugees. LMOS is also the sponsor of a refugee family from Egypt through a Community Sponsorship Scheme.
She is keen to support work that influences health both locally and regionally by improving health and reducing health inequalities through co-production of research and implementation. She is keen to give a voice to people from ethnic minorities.
