Hi all

This is a pretty specific thread, but hoping someone can help :-). Basically, I am planning on doing my fieldwork in Community Mental Health Teams. I want to research the implementation of a particular policy and will be taking an ethnographic approach. I'm hoping to start my research early next year. The issue I have is that I have no previous practice expereince of working in mental health and consequently have very little in the way of contacts. One of my supervisors used to work in mental health, but in a forensic team and not in my geographical area. I've slowly been working out the complex vagaries of the NHS ethics system and how to get R&D approval, but am still trying to figure out who to contact and how to contact them in regards to gaining access to specific fieldwork sites. So...the question I have is, does anyone have any experience of doing research in the NHS (particularly in mental health) and how did you go about gaining permission for access?

Thanks!
SocPol

I don't have answers to your questions I'm afraid but just to highlight the fact that if you want to work in an NHS setting and you're not a university or NHS employee then might need to get a 'research passport' which clears you as a researcher, as well as the approvals you're seeking for the project.

Hey Socpol- I'm in clinical psychology and recruited my participants through the NHS. It's kind of complicated and depends a bit on which NHS Trust you will be working with. So you know that you need REC (research ethics committee) and R&D (research and development) approval, and that's a pretty big job in itself, but there should be people in the uni who can help you with that- certainly people in psychology will have loads of experience with completing these sorts of applications. When I started the process I actually went to see the REC manager at the local hospital and she gave me some very useful guidance, so that might be something you could do. With respect to access to staff/patients (I'm not sure if it's both you want to participate?), it varies massively from trust to trust. You will need an NHS research passport and probably also an NHS honorary research contract. These aren't too hard to sort out, just a lot of signatures required, but your REC/R&D contact will be able to advise you on how to go about this. For some trusts, once you have gone through all this you may be able to access databases with potential participants' details on and invite them to take part in your study. In the trust I work with we could only do that if the potential participants had agreed in advance that researchers could contact them, but some trusts will let you use that information regardless. If you can't access this sort of information then you will need to approach relevant clinicians and make contacts that way. Beware- these folk are seriously busy and building up contacts this way can be a very slow business. There might be someone at your uni who already has contacts with these people, and that would be a massive help. You will need to have your recruitment plan sorted out before you complete your NHS and R&D applications, as there are sections that ask very specifically about how you plan to recruit and obtain informed consent. I haven't been doing ethnographic research so I can't advise on the specifics, but contacts are the key! There will probably be people at your uni who will be able to advise on this, possibly in other departments, so definitely check this out- it could save you a lot of time!

It does all sound a bit overwhelming at the beginning, but you will get through all the paperwork. Just make sure you allow a good 6 months of your PhD time to get all the relevant approvals, and if you're not sure, ask for advice- there are people inn the NHS who know the systeminside out and deal with these forms and queries every day! Good luck! KB

Hi both -thanks so much for your replies! KB - you're right - it is a bit overwhelming at the moment but I'm trying to figure it all out slowly and carefully! I did go on a NHS training day for the REC process a couple of weeks ago, which was really useful, and am hopefully going to attend a local REC meeting to see what its like. I've contacted the Research Governance Manager of my local Trust and he's given me some useful advice too, and said he would look for potential contacts for me. I will be doing research with both staff and patients, and have been looking at the passport process too. I think my main issue is one that you discuss KB - contacts! I guess I've been a bit silly really in choosing a topic in an area which I haven't worked before, but it was more of an intellectual interest than coming from practice experience. Unfortunately neither of my supervisors know much about the NHS or have contacts in my subject area either. I have tried contacting a Professor in our Health Sciences Dept who researchers regularly in the NHS but got no joy there. I think you're right KB, I could really do with talking to someone at uni who knows the ins and outs of it so I'll have to keep trying. Thanks again!