Young people’s involvement

The NeurOx Young Person’s Advisory Group (YPAG) has been running since 2015. Currently it is a group of about 26 young people (between 15 and 19 years old) who work with the Neuroscience, Ethics and Society (NEUROSEC) team in the Department of Psychiatry to help develop methods for working with young people to better understand their views in mental health research and interventions.

Blog post: Building and sustaining capacity of young researchers

Read our new blog post with personal reflections on another year working with the NeurOX YPAG. Vanessa Bennett and YPAG member, Sophie, summarise the achievements and impacts of the NeurOX YPAG and working together over the past year.

“I have loved being part of YPAG and being involved in a group where I feel I am making a difference.” Sophie, NeurOX YPAG member

Involvement of NeurOX YPAG in research

For a quick look at what the group has been up to over the past year take a look at our 1-page summary.

For longer reads, find:

a summary of the projects and outputs here.
how we have evaluated our impact over the past year across a range of different project with different outcomes for young people, services and research relating to mental health and wellbeing, here.

Blog post: NeurOX YPAG help University of Nottingham to interpret analyses from health databases

Read our blog post from researchers a public contributor from the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Nottingham about their second online consultation with the NeurOX YPAG. They shared the findings from their study of seasonal trends in antidepressant prescribing, depression, anxiety, and self-harm in adolescents and young adults using UK primary care data. Five of our members (aged 17-19 years) discussed what they might expect and interpretation of the data.

“I really enjoyed the meeting by the Nottingham group about antidepressants and found the research they showed us very eye-opening.” Sophie, NeurOX YPAG member

Blog post: Involving young people in planning a study about Binge Eating Disorder

Read our blog post written by Emma Osborne, research assistant at the Centre for Research on Eating Disorders at the University of Oxford (CREDO) and Dr Rebecca Murphy, co-director of CREDO and NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow on how they involved young people in planning a study to evaluate a new treatment for Binge Eating Disorder.

Equality, diversity and inclusion project – widening involvement of young people in mental health research

Between October 2019 and August 2020 BRC researchers undertook consultations with young people to inform an inclusive capacity building approach to widen the involvement of young people in research. This aimed to capture insights into what young people feel is important to consider to ensure young people’s involvement in research is diverse and meaningful.

Young people’s perspectives on meaningful involvement in research

Oxford Health BRC PPI team have focused on involving young people with our research, ensuring that their views and priorities have been recognised during the pandemic. Working with the NEUROSEC/NeurOX Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) of more than 30 young people aged 14-18, there has been particular emphasis on digital approaches which has helped make involvement opportunities more inclusive. The animation below has been created by the group as a resource for researchers.

Impact of involvement on young people and researchers – what’s meaningful to who?

To mark the end of a 5-year Wellcome BeGOOD research programme involving the NeurOX YPAG, and their continued involvement on a range of projects over the past 2 years, the NEUROSEC team recently commissioned an independent storytelling evaluation. Story collectors from the Oxford Arts of the Old Firestation explored the experiences and journeys of young people and researchers through conversations and pulled out key themes to highlight the impact on those involved in the research. You can find the stories and evaluation here.

Young People’s involvement in the Childline message board research project

The NeurOX YPAG were involved in a collaborative project with the NSPCC/Childline exploring characteristics driving help-seeking needs and mechanisms of psychological support offered through peer-peer interactions via the Childline on-line peer-peer message board service. We looked at young people experiencing or questioning emotional abuse and neglect. The YPAG were involved in all stages of the research using a new qualitative approach and to look at help-seeking via peer-peer messages on the Childline message boards. During the work experience week, the YPAG worked with the NSPCC Team to develop a presentation for High Value Funders to support taking forward some of their recommendations from the study.

You can read a summary of the research and their key recommendations in the NSPCC briefing report here.

NeurOX YPAG 2021 virtual work experience week

A group of 10 of our young co-researchers met on-line during 26 – 30 July 2021. During the week, we focussed on building skills, knowledge and co-producing research with the group, and some socialising! A number of external collaborators from the NSPCC and BoingBoing were involved in making the week a success – we are appreciative of all their support and contributions to the programme. Read more about who was involved, what the young researchers worked on, how we did it and most important what they felt about their experience!

I learned to not be as afraid to give my view on things, and it was nice for my contributions to have an effect on the overall result…”

The work experience week was a really rewarding process that allowed me to express my opinions on projects that are crucial to the future. We welcomed guest speakers from various organisations who introduced us to their work; we presented our ideas and received feedback from each speaker. Meeting the founder of the YPAG was one of the most interesting parts because we got to listen to why and how the group was started in the first place. I now have a better understanding of the thought-process behind co-production, as well as the way in which it’s carried out.”