Research Fellow - Coastal and Rural Mental Health

Part time (22.2 hours per week) and fixed term for 21 months, with the advert closing on 5^th August at 23:59.

The Coastal and Rural Mental Health Realist Study (CARMHRS) is a 28-month project exploring the ways that people who live in coastal and rural areas look after their mental health and how local mental health services are helping them.

Mental health services in remote coastal and rural areas present challenges both for the people who live in these areas and for the organisations who provide the services. For people who need the services, many challenges relate to poverty, inadequate housing and transport links, and services that do not meet their social and other needs. As well as responding to these issues, service providers face other difficulties relating to staff shortages, poor digital infrastructure and transport infrastructure, and the need to provide standard services, including emergency responses, across large geographical areas. The aims of the CARMHRS study are:

• To improve community mental health systems in Coastal and Rural (CAR) areas by assessing the impact of strategies (such as the Community Mental Health Framework), implemented in CAR regions on improving the accessibility and acceptability of mental health care services for people living there.
• To facilitate a Community of Practice to co-produce a Guide to improving accessibility and acceptability of mental health care services in CAR areas.

The sites are Integrated health care systems (ICS) in CAR areas (Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly, Lincolnshire, and North East and North Cumbria) with two case studies per site, selected by low-income low population density neighbourhoods and related to Primary Care Networks.  The fieldwork for this role will be based in the North East and North Cumbria region, exact locations to be decided. 

We are looking for a multi-skilled and applied mental health researcher, with experience in knowledge mobilisation and research management. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you will support the Principal Investigator in delivering research activities for the above NIHR funded project exploring how people living in coastal and rural areas look after their mental health and respond to changes from services designed to better meet their needs.

You will be a 'researcher-in-residence', embedded in two local mental health teams in the North-East and North Cumbria region, 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 in the project, as well as for 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.

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

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 therefore the successful candidate will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

Further information about the requirements of the role is available in the person specification.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please contact natalie2.forster@northumbria.ac.uk

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