FAIR - Finding and Adapting methods of Inclusive Research

In 2023, 1 in 5 people aged 8–25 years old reported that they had experienced poor mental health. The number of people under 25 sharing that they have experienced poor mental health has been steadily increasing. To improve mental health for this group of people it is important for researchers and young people to work together to develop ways to recognise when someone is experiencing poor mental health early, and ensure that they are able to access help.

There are groups of people who often feel under represented or unheard. The voices of these people are not often present in research, we need to ensure that these people are included..

What is the purpose of this research?

This research aims to develop and share ways for researchers and young people (aged 16 – 24) to work together. This will be achieved through three specific aims;
- To explore ways of gathering stories by working with schools
- To develop a toolkit to help young people and researchers work together
- To better understand the experiences of autistic people who feel under represented

What will we do?

We will work with The Day, an online e-learning platform, in 10 schools. This work will support young people to develop stories around arts and culture. These stories will be shared on the Student Voices website. We will ask both students and people working in the schools to share with us what the experience of writing stories was like for them. We want to make sure that people who do not usually have the opportunity to share their ideas in research have their voice heard, so we will target schools in areas that experience challenges.

We have a team of young people who lead and co-ordinated all the different ways that young people can be involved in the research in our current work. This is different to the way that research is usually conducted. We will bring young people, researchers and people who work in charities together for 6 workshops, spread over 18 months. In these workshops, we will work together to develop a tool kit that can help both young people and researchers to work together in this way in the future.

We have been providing safe spaces for people to share their life stories with us. We have had 20 young people who have shared their experiences of being autistic with us. Alongside young people we will explore the transcripts from these stories in more depth and detail, identifying patterns and themes across the transcripts to help us understand how better support can be provided for this group of people.

How will the findings from this research have an impact?

The findings from this research will support future researchers and young people to work together, to help make sure that the voices of young people experiencing mental health problems are meaningfully involved in research.

We will share our findings in newsletters, academic publications and online information sharing sessions.

There is a law called the Autism Act that makes it a legal duty for the government to make sure the needs of autistic people are met. This law is currently under review. We will work with an organisation called Policy Connect to share our findings with the people conducting this review and proposing changes.