The Early Psychosis Research Group is looking for patient and carer members to join their group!

We are a research group from the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry who study the causes and course of illness and the treatments for people who are experiencing or who have recently experienced a first episode of a psychotic illness.

Our group are interested in many different topics related to psychotic illnesses, such as investigating the role of immune system or gut bacteria in psychotic symptoms, investigating ways to improve the physical health for people with psychosis, and looking into how best we can provide early treatment and organise community mental health services for people with psychosis.

We are looking for patient and carer representatives to help us develop and run our research studies by giving us your views on them. We are particularly interested in recruiting people who have experienced psychosis or who care for someone who has.

In joining the group we ask people:

• To attend an initial welcome meeting in Oxford to decide on terms of reference for the PPI group.
• To be available to contribute to at least one research study a year by reading and commenting on funding applications, study designs and materials, and study dissemination.
• To be comfortable discussing a range of topics related to mental health and mental health treatments (including biological, psychological, and social treatments).
• To be available to travel to Oxford to attend occasional meetings.

We will work with each group member, to identify and provide the support that you would like to help you to carry out the role. For example, this might be an introductory meeting, a named contact, or time to discuss topics to enable you to contribute in the meetings.

We will reimburse group members for expenses and offer a payment for your time.

Download the PPI Representative Role Description for further information including how to send us an Expression of Interest to join the group. Or email Stephen.puntis@psych.ox.ac.uk to be sent this document by email.

The deadline for sending us your Expression of Interest is 5 April 2019 but we encourage you to get in touch as soon as possible if you are interested.