TRIUMPH Network Newsletter
March 2022

Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 will raise awareness of the impact of loneliness on our mental wellbeing, as well as the practical steps that can be taken to address it. You can learn more about the campaign, and how you can contribute to its impact on this website.

GROW: Research Development Programme 

The Mental Health Research Incubator are offering a new professional development opportunity for mental health researchers known as ‘GROW: Research Development Programme’.

GROW: Research Development Programme is a structured, funded 6-month programme which will support a select cohort of early career researchers (ECRs) across England to achieve their research goals. It will also enable ECRs to develop the networks, skills and experience to work across sectors and disciplines to make a difference in mental health research.

The competitive application process is now open, and the deadline for applications is 29 April at midnight. Please note that the programme is only open to researchers in England. If you think this opportunity could be for you, find out more and submit your application on this webpage.

Following discussions with practitioners, clinicians, educators, policy makers, researchers, and community members, challenges and barriers to effective suicide prevention for LGBT+ young people were identified and written up as a ‘Manifesto for Change’.

The manifesto gives an overview of findings from original research by one of TRIUMPH’s members, Dr Hazel Marzetti, as well as the discussions at the event itself. It describes the long-term and short-term changes that could help prevent LGBT+ youth suicide in the future, and the practical support needed to make these changes.

You can read the manifesto here, and if you would like any further information you can contact hazel.marzetti@ed.ac.uk.

Anna Freud Centre’s ‘LGBTQI+ and Mental Health’ Booklet

The Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families has produced a new booklet to help LGBTQI+ young people with their mental health. You can take a look at this new booklet here.

Young Minds’ Impact Report 2021

Young Minds have released their Impact Report for 2021. You can access this report, along with other updates from Young Minds here.

Funding opportunities

Applications will open in April, and are open to any discipline that uses evidence in rigorous and transparent ways. The prize is not limited to those from psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience backgrounds. Selected teams will receive funding to explore existing datasets, and will be supported to develop impactful digital tools to enable further research. 

You can read more about the prize, and register your interest, by signing up to the Wellcome trust mailing list here.

This webinar will present an overview of creative and collaborative approaches to communicating and researching with children and young people. It will discuss these approaches in relation to projects focused on producing materials for direct use in healthcare and other projects concerned with exploring children and young people’s perspectives on different aspects of their lives.

Registration for the webinar is free. Find out more and register here.

10^th European Conference on Mental Health

The 10^th European Conference on Mental Health will be held in Lisbon, Portugal from 14-16 September 2022. The theme of the conference is ‘Moving Forward During Times of Change’. Abstract submission for the conference closes on 11 July, and registration ends 7 September 2022. You can find more information on the conference, including other key dates, here.

IAYMH 2022 Conference – Call for Abstracts

The 6^th international conference from the International Association for Youth Menthal Health (IAYMH), ‘Reimagining | Youth Mental Health’, will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on 29 September – 1 October 2022.

IAYMH want diverse voices and ideas from all over the globe to come together in Copenhagen to Reimagine | Youth Mental Health. They are strongly encouraging all sectors of the youth mental health community to consider submitting an abstract for this event, whether you are a seasoned academic researcher, a clinician from a youth service, or a young person advocating for change on the ground in your local school or university. The call for abstracts is now open, and will close on 18 March 2022 at 23:59 UTC.

You can find out more information about the conference, including other key dates, here.

NIHR Public Mental Health Virtual Symposium 2022

NIHR School for Public Health Research are hosting their Public Mental Health (PMH) Virtual Symposium 2022 on 27 April 2022. This will be a one-day event, with morning and afternoon sessions. The morning and afternoon sessions will run from 10.00-12.30 and 14.00-16.30 respectively. Please note that you must register for each of these sessions separately.

The symposium will give you the opportunity to hear updates on the latest research from across the PMH programme, provide feedback on the findings of this research, and ask the researchers questions. It will also provide an opportunity to improve your own knowledge of PMH and build connections with others in the field.

The event is free to attend, and open to anyone interested in PMH. Follow the link here to find out more about the symposium, including what will be included in the morning and afternoon sessions.

The School Mental Health Specialist Webinar

Minds Ahead are hosting a webinar, ‘The School Mental Health Specialist Webinar’, on 30 March 2022 at 16.00-17.00.

The webinar aims to provide information on how to enhance your skills and gain specialist knowledge of mental health in education. Registration is free, and you can save your space here.

Dr Jenkins has personal experience of growing up with a parent who had a schizo-affective disorder, and in each episode she shares her memories and experiences with someone else who also grew up as the child of a parent with mental illness.

My Family, Mental Illness, and Me is a podcast from the charity Our Time. This charity supports and advocates for the estimated 3 million young people in the UK living with or caring for a parent with a mental illness, and is supported by the Mental Health Foundation.

You can find a link to every episode of My Family, Mental Illness, and Me on your preferred podcast platform here.

New Podcast Series from SMaRteN

In support of Univeristy Mental Health Day 2022, SMaRteN have launched the first episode in their new podcast series ‘Keeping Students in Mind: Understanding Student Mental Health Research’.

This new podcast series is student led, and aims to break down innovative research and address research priorities that SMaRteN student creators feel passionate about. You can listen to the first episode in the series here.

Mental Health Foundation’s Thriving Learners Study

The Thriving Learners Study, conducted by Mental Health Foundation in partnership with Universities Scotland, is the largest study into the mental health and wellbeing of students in Scotland.

In the first phase of the study, completed in 2021, nearly three quarters of university students surveyed reported low wellbeing. The study has now entered its second phase, and the survey has just opened to college students. You can read more about this important study here.

Research Papers

“Am I really alive?”: Understanding the role of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in young LGBT+ people's suicidal distress. Marzetti, H., McDaid, L. & O’Connor, R. (2022). Social Science & Medicine.

Children’s human rights under COVID-19: Learning from children’s rights impact assessments. Tisdall, E. K. M. & Morrison, F. (2022). The International Journal of Human Rights.

COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on social relationships and health. Long, E., Patterson, S., Maxwell, K., Blake, C., Pérez, R. B., Lewis, R., McCann, M., Riddell, J., Skivington, K., Wilson-Lowe, R. & Mitchell, K. (2022). Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Cross-Country and Gender Differences in Factors Associated with Population-Level Declines in Adolescent Life Satisfaction. Marquez, J., Inchley, J. & Long, E. (2022). Child Indicators Research.

Cross-national validation of the social media disorder scale: findings from adolescents from 44 countries. Boer, M., van den Eijnden, R. J. J. M., Finkenauer, C., Boniel-Nissim, M., Marino, C., Inchley, J., Cosma, A., Paakkari, L. & Stevens, G. W. J. M. (2022). Addiction.

Digital technologies to support adolescents with depression and anxiety: review. Bevan-Jones, R., Hussain, F., Agha, S., Weavers, B., Lucassen, M., Merry, S., Stallard, P., Simpson, S. & Rice, F. (2022). BJPsych Advances.

Effectiveness of the Strengthening Families Programme in the UK at preventing substance misuse in 10–14 year-olds: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Segrott, J., Gillespie, D., Lau, M., Holliday, J., Murphy, S., Foxcroft, D., Hood, K., Scourfield, J., Phillips, C., Roberts, Z., Rothwell, H., Hurlow, C. & Moore, L. (2022). BMJ Open.

International perspectives on social media use among adolescents: Implications for mental and social well-being and substance use. Boniel-Nissim, M., van den Eijnden, R. J. J. M., Furstova, J., Marino, C., Lahti, H., Inchley, J., Smigelskas, K., Vieno, A. & Badura, P. (2022). Computers in Human Behavior.

Loneliness in young people: a multilevel exploration of social ecological influences and geographic variation. Marquez, J., Goodfellow, C., Hardoon, D., Inchley, J., Leyland, A. H., Qualter, P., Simpson, S. A. & Long, E. (2022). Journal of Public Health.  

Measurement invariance of the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and latent mean differences (SWEMWBS) in young people by current care status. Anthony, R., Moore, G., Page, N., Hewitt, G., Murphy, S. & Melendez-Torres, G. J. (2022). Quality of Life Research.

Mental health and life satisfaction among 10-11-year-olds in Wales, before and one year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moore, G., Anthony, R., Angel, L., Hawkins, J., Morgan, K., Copeland, L., Murphy, S., Van Godwin, J. & Shenderovich, Y. (2022). BMC Public Health.

Take part in research

The survey only takes 5 minutes to complete, and the team at DATAMIND are interested in your opinion regardless of your research background. You can fill out the survey here.

Join the ‘Why Mental Health Research Matters Steering’ Group

Does mental health research matter to you? The team behind the Mental Health Research Matters campaign are looking to recruit people from each of the 8 UKRI-funded mental health research networks to join their ‘Why Mental Health Research Matters’ steering group.

The team want anyone with a passion for mental health research, whether you are a researcher or someone with lived experience of mental health difficulties, to join the steering group. As part of the group you will help shape an exciting conversation about research and mental health in autumn 2022, and use your personal or professional experience and expertise to let key audiences know why mental health research matters.

The group will meet via Zoom 2-4 times from May-October 2022, and any participant volunteering their time, who is not joining as part of a paid work role, will receive £20 per hour.

You can find out more about what being part of the steering group will involve, and how to join, on this website.