Be a part of research

The clinical and cost-effectiveness of Stimulant compared with Non-stimulant medication for adults with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and a history of Psychosis or biPolar disordER: SNAPPER.

Age: 18 years and over

What’s involved? The 1^st study visit will be 3-4 hours. This will involve seeking your consent and answering a series of questions in the form of an interview about your mental health and ADHD. Following this, you will be randomised (a 50/50 chance) to receive one of 2 routinely prescribed medications for ADHD. There will be regular contact with your clinical team for the 1^st four months: every 1-2 weeks, or as clinically required, to review your medication, Blood Pressure and pulse. There will be a further 4 visits with a researcher (at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months) including questions about your mental health and ADHD. These visits will take up to 90 minutes each. You will receive a £25 voucher after your 1^st visit and a further £25 voucher after completing each of your 6 and 12 months visits.

Location:  Own home, clinic, telephone or Zoom/Microsoft Teams.

Info about the study: This trial aims to find out how effective a stimulant medication is compared to a non-stimulant medication in patients who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and also have a history of either psychosis or bipolar.

Who can be involved?

• Person with a diagnosis of psychosis or bipolar disorder who also have a diagnosis of ADHD
• Open to Adult Mental Health Services
• Not currently (or within the last month) on medication for ADHD
• *there are other eligibility criteria which we can discuss further with you.

If you are interested in learning more email: researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk or sign up to our REACH database.

Looking for: Practioners who support 16-25 year olds

Location: Online

Duration: 10-20 mins

Info about the study: 

Do you support young people aged 16-25? Could you help young people’s mental health research by completing a short (10-20 mins) online survey to share your views about supporting social connectedness for young people?

The Together study is looking for practitioners who support young people aged 16-25 years to take part in a short online survey.

Taking part will help researchers to learn whether future research should continue to explore the benefits of social connectedness in young people's mental health.

What will taking part involve?

Taking part will involve completing a short online survey that will take approximately 10-20 minutes to complete. The survey will ask you questions about:

• Yourself and your professional experience
• Your views on supporting young people with mental health problems to increase their social connectedness

Contact the research team...

If you have any questions about the study, please contact the research team using the details below (Mon-Fri, 9am to 5pm):

Researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk
01603 421397

Need more information? Willing to take part?

Please follow this Universtiy of Sussex link to take part in the study here.

Age: 7-12 years

Aims: We want to find out how well ‘Lumi Nova: Tales of Courage’ works for young people. Lumi Nova is a new game-based therapy, seeking to reduce anxiety symptoms, such as feelings of worry, fear and unease, in 7–12 years old. This study aims to find out if Lumi Nova helps to reduce anxiety, and to get children, families and healthcare professional's views on the game and similar digital therapies.

The NHS is committed to improving access to anxiety care for young people, and sees digital therapy interventions as key to this. Lumi Nova is a digital therapy game which is specially designed to help children and young people with anxiety. It asks young people to play challenges throughout the game, where the young person tried out situations they find difficult and then rates how worried and anxious they feel.

Design: We will examine how well Lumi Nova works in 4 different ways.

1) We will look at data routinely collected from young people who are using Lumi Nova now to find out how well it works for them to help anxiety.

2) We will explore who is using it and if different groups of young people find it helpful or not. This will include those living in deprived and ethnic minority groups. We will ask these young people how well Lumi Nova and digital therapy meets their care needs.

3) We will ask healthcare professionals involved in young people’s care what they think about Lumi Nova and digital therapy.

4) We will ask national experts what they feel is important about digital therapy care for children and young people’s mental health.

Involvement of Young People: Children, young people and their parents have been involved in the design andtesting of Lumi Nova. Within this study, we will involve ten young people and their families in leading the project through an Advisory Group. We will work with people from this group to help run the different aspects of the study, including working with poorer and ethnic minority communities and making sense of data together. If you are interested then please sign up to our research database REACH and we will be in touch. 

Age: 16+

The study called MINDS aims to improve the outcomes and experiences of those being discharged from mental health hospitals, it is funded by the NIHR.

If you, or someone you support or care for, has experienced leaving a mental health hospital in the last five years then please email to share your experiences. 

Please visit our dedicated MINDs study page MINDS study | Norfolk and Suffolk NHS (nsft.nhs.uk)

Age: 16-30 

Visits: 1 x online survey on service user views on digital health promotion in youth mental health.

Location: online 

Info about the study: People with mental health conditions have higher risks of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases compared to the general population. Alongside this, living with mental health conditions may have a negative impact on people’s lifestyles, for instance making it difficult to exercise frequently, have a healthy diet, or quit smoking. This also increases the risk of physical diseases in people living with mental health conditions.
Therefore, improving the physical health and lifestyle of those treated for mental health conditions is a current priority for healthcare services. While digital technologies (such as smartphones) could play a role in this, there is currently little understanding of how this might work best in mental healthcare.

What the survey aims to explore: As someone with experience in living with mental health conditions, the study team is particularly interested in your  opinions around:
(i) Existing mobile apps for physical health/lifestyle,
(ii) How mobile health (or ‘mHealth’) could best be used for assessing physical health or improving lifestyle, and
(iii) Things which might make it easier or harder to use mHealth for promoting physical health in young adults with mental health conditions.
This survey will contribute towards informing an ongoing research project around using of digital technologies in improving the physical health for young people treated for mental health conditions.
 

Who can be involved?
• Participants aged between 16-30 years old and who have received a diagnosis from a doctor or healthcare professional for a mental health condition (e.g., depression, anxiety, psychosis, bipolar disorder, or another diagnosis).
• Participants who currently receive any healthcare or treatment (e.g., medications or therapy) for a mental health condition. 

If you would like to participate or get more information about the study, please use the link below, here:

https://redcap.link/AppSurvey2021  or email researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk

Age: 16-25 

Location: online 

ANSWERS is an observational cohort study, aiming to collect in-depth health and social data across multiple timepoints with 250 representative young people with mental health needs across Norfolk and Suffolk.

The information collected will provide us with data about what is important to young people, what helps and impacts their mental wellbeing from social, educational and neighbourhood perspectives, and how this relates to health service use and need.

The information we find will be anonymously and continually shared with all healthcare organisations involved in supporting the mental health needs of young people, including NHS Trusts, social care, public health and voluntary organisations to help them support young people.  

The study will be open to recruitment in January 2022, but in the meantime you can express interest in taking part in the study by signing up to the REACH research database to be contacted when the study opens: REACH

By signing up to REACH you will be given a choice of two ways to become involved:

1. Become part of the ANSWERS Young person’s advisory group and help steer and manage the project to make sure that we are asking the right questions

or

2. Become a participant by completing online questionnaires at regular intervals about all aspects of your life and how they impact your mental wellbeing.

Age: 18 years and over

Duration: up to 2 hours

Visits: x 1 online interview by Zoom or Teams. Potential for future workshop.

Location: online with researchers from UEA.

Info about the study: Carers of people with dementia need to have information about the disease and necessary skills to manage and support the day-to-day care they give to the person with dementia. This study aims to adapt a Dutch intervention called Partner in Balance, to implement it into the UK’s NHS. The intervention is a package of resources and tips to help carers. We are interested in the experiences and views of carers and health care staff supporting people living with dementia. The researcher will ask you to talk about yourself and the person with dementia that you care for. You will be asked to give an insight into your caregiving experience and browse a website designed to support dementia carers. The aim of the study is to explore through EBCD (experience based co-design) how  the Dutch intervention Partner in Balance can be implemented in the UK. CARECOACH is a 5 year programme with work packages. This is the first part (Work Package 1). Carers receive £20 voucher, staff receive CPD training credits.

Who can be involved?

For carers:

•             Current or previous family carer of a person with dementia diagnosed in the previous 12 months;

•             Has a first-degree relationship (spouse/partner, sibling, son or daughter) with a person with dementia;OR must have a close personal relationship with a person with dementia, as agreed by the care recipient;

•             Has capacity to give informed consent to participate;

•             Has access to a home computer/laptop, ipad/tablet or mobile phone with equivalent internet connectivity;

•             Willing and able to participate in recorded interviews and events via online video call software Zoom/MS Teams. There may be the option of telephone or face-to-face interviews at a later date.

 

For health care staff;

•             Main work role is caring for people living with dementia

•             Willing, able, and supported by their organisations to participate in recorded interviews

If you are interested in learning more email: researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk

 Or register to our database for research REACH and we will contact you. Alternatively self-referral can be made using this link or QR code: 

Age:  45-85

Duration: approx. 90 minutes

Visits: x 1 visit to UEA

Location: University of East Anglia (UEA)

Info about the study: The aim of the study is to assess the coordination of reaching movements in people who have had some changes in their memory function

Who can be involved?

• Person with a diagnosis of Alzheimers Disease or Amnestic MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment)
• Score of at least 50/100 on ACE 111 (If ACE-III score is unavailable, clinical opinion of mild-to-moderate cognitive impairment)

Exclusions include:

• significant difficulty communicating or understanding instructions in English
• significant uncorrected visual impairment (e.g. cataract, macular degeneration, scotoma, amblyopia, strabismus)
• conditions that could interfere directly with smooth hand movements (e.g. ataxia, essential tremor, severe arthritis)

What’s involved? One study visit at the UEA for approx. 90 minutes for memory, perception, language, other thinking skills and hand eye coordination tests.

If you are interested in learning more email: researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk

Sign up to our REACH database here.

Age: 16 +

Duration: 5 - 10 minutes online survey

Location: Norfolk and Suffolk 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been reports that many people need additional support to regularly access and afford food.

We want to find out how many people who have mental health needs in Norfolk and Suffolk are unable to regularly access or afford food or are worried about it. This will help inform a more coordinated approach to identifying food access needs and signposting to helpful organisations.

This survey is entirely voluntary and is open to everyone over the age of 16 who may have mental health needs and/or may worry about accessing or affording food.

We do not ask any personal information in the survey, but there are some general questions about background so we can find out which groups of people are more likely to need food support.

Once we have enough responses, the survey results will be published on the Trust website – we are hoping that this will be in Summer 2021. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk

The survey can be accessed here.

Age 16 +

Duration: Up to one hour

Location: One off online questionnaire and optional test

GLAD stands for the genetic links to anxiety and depression. The study is a project set up to support research exploring risk factors for depression and/or anxiety.

The GLAD study aims to better understand depression and anxiety to find more effective treatments. It hopes to improve the lives of people experiencing these disorders.

GLAD is a national study with its own specialist website. Please remember if you found out about the study from Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust then be sure to put that when asked to ‘select the NHS trust, GP, talking therapy service or other healthcare provider’.

Register your interest on the GLAD website

Age: 18-70

Duration: 15 mins

Visits: One off visit and blood sample.

Location: Norfolk and Suffolk

This national study is targeting patients suffering from psychosis. It is looking to see if there is a link between having special membrane antibodies and their illness.

Who can be involved?

• those experiencing a current episode of psychosis lasting less than 2 years. This can be a first episode or relapse
• aged between 18-70 years
• willing to provide a blood sample

If you are interested in learning more email: researchinfo@nsft.nhs.uk (Norfolk and Suffolk only)

For further information visit the national website  and choose Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

Register your interest