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.

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.

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.”