Experts from the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and Clinical Research Facility (CRF) came together on Monday 20th May to showcase their latest research at our annual mental health and dementia open day.

The event was opened by BRC Director Professor John Geddes who surveyed the current landscape in mental health funding and explained how Oxford will continue to grow and develop as a centre of excellence for mental health and dementia research.

Prof. Geddes, Director of @OxHealthBRC opened #OHbrcopenday happening on #CTD2019 by highlighting the mismatch between #mentalhealth research & burden, citing @MQmentalhealth report: Research spend per person affected for cancer is £228 while for #mentalhealth it is only £9

— Parisa Mansoori (She/Her) (@parisamansoori) May 20, 2019

Many of the day’s talks focused on the ways research translates into direct benefits for patients. Professor Clare Mackay, Theme Lead for Older Adults and Dementia, spoke about plans to establish a brain health centre in Oxford and its potential to improve treatment for patients experiencing memory problems.

From the Precision Psychological Therapies theme Dr Sinead Lambe and Dr Laina Rosebrock introduced the gameChange clinical trial. This study tests an automated psychological therapy for people with severe mental health difficulties. The delivery of this kind of therapy using virtual reality could transform the provision of psychological therapy in the NHS.

Our second session at today’s #OHBRCOpenDay gets off to a great start with a talk from Dr Sinead Lambe and Dr Laina Rosebrock about the impact of #VirtualReality therapy in #mentalhealth @OxPsychiatry @OxfordHealthNHS pic.twitter.com/8c7dDVLBEa

— NIHR Oxford Health BRC (@OxHealthBRC) May 20, 2019

Claire Murray, Patient and Public Involvement Manager at Oxford Health talked us through a year in the life of patient and public involvement with Patient Co-chair of the Patients and Research Group, Julia Hamer-Hunt. You can read more about their achievements in the latest PPI progress report.

The open day concluded with a review of the Informatics and Digital Health theme from Theme Lead Professor Andrea Cipriani with Sophie Walker who provided an update on a pilot to make consent for research contact easier. It is hoped that this project will ultimately give more patients the opportunity to participate in research.

In addition to attending the programme of talks, attendees had the opportunity to visit a selection of exhibition stands to find out more about specific projects and speak to researchers directly.

Jointly hosted by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF), the open day took place on International Clinical Trials Day (ICTD). ICTD celebrates the contribution of volunteer participants to research and this year marked the launch of NIHR’s Be Part of Research campaign encouraging more of us to get involved.