Laura Miles, research trial manager, ICALM

I am the research trial manager for a specific trial, ICALM. This means most of my time is spent working on this one study which is focused on supporting young people who are experiencing low mood. I work with lots of professionals, from lots of different agencies, helping them recruit and support young people in the study.  

I have been involved with mental health research in lots of different ways and, for me, it always comes down to wanting to make services, intervention, therapy, treatment and understanding better.

We have far less mental health research than we do physical health research. The only way to get better is to look at what we do, what is working, what isn’t working and then try and improve it. It’s for this reason that I also think it’s essential to have people who are accessing services involved in developing research. These are the people who know best.