Research Fellow – Coastal and Rural Mental Health Realist Study

About the role

This role is about developing better knowledge of how changes to community mental health services may have impacted people who live in coastal and rural communities.  You will be a ‘researcher-in-residence’, embedded in two local mental health teams in Cornwall, using qualitative research skills, and working ethnographically to understand how that area is meeting the needs of people from coastal and rural communities.  You will work alongside a Community Researcher, who will be researching how local communities are responding to service changes, and as a pair, you will be responsible for developing patient, public and involvement participation in the project (with support from a Research Assistant) as well as data collection (non-participant observation, realist interviews and focus groups, document review) and analysis (realist evaluation).  You will also be part of a wider national team and will contribute towards the national Community of Practice for the study.

You will be actively supported to develop your own research career whilst working with us, with support towards grant writing and first author publication.  To date, staff members in the Principal Investigator’s wider team have been supported to apply for fellowships, grants, have had dedicated time to write papers, and have presented their work at the European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation (ENMESH), as well as conferences and symposia in the UK.  As a team we prioritise mental health: both our own and others, and we take positive steps to maintaining a good balance in all things, including work.

This is an ideal opportunity for an ambitious research fellow keen to work in a supportive context that will enable you to achieve change for mental health care services and people with lived experience and take the next step in your career.

You will become part of the Community and Primary Care Research Group (CPCRG), in the Faculty of Health at the University of Plymouth.  CPCRG is a welcoming and growing research group concerned with improving care through applied health and care research on issues which matter to community and primary care services.  CPCRG has strong links across the University, as well as with University of Exeter colleagues through PenARC, and with NHS Trusts and other health and social care organisations, including the third sector and the Health Innovation Network.

You will hold a PhD or equivalent international qualification or commensurate level of recognition/international profile/experience in a relevant discipline. You will also have knowledge of the issues to do with mental health for people living and providing services in coastal and or rural areas. You will have knowledge of co-production and community engagement approaches in the context of mental health service improvement and/or research, and knowledge of realist methodology and methods, researcher-in-residence and ethnographic methodologies of inquiry

For an informal discussion to find out more about the role please contact:

Becky Hardwick via email at rebecca.hardwick@plymouth.ac.uk

This post is a part-time position working 22.2 hours per week, on a fixed-term basis for 21 months from the start date.

Closing date:  12 midnight, Monday 26 May 2025

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