TURNING THE TIDE

Mersey Care and the University of Liverpool have teamed up to create the first ever Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC), where service users co-design the innovations they need and want, alongside health professionals, researchers, industry partners, and public advisers.

The Centre has been awarded £10.5 million of government funding to develop and evaluate new treatments and deliver innovative services. This will include trialling new drugs and new uses of existing drugs and researching digital therapies such as apps and artificial intelligence.

Globally renowned researchers from the Northwest will play a leading role in groundbreaking research that could see Merseyside become the engine room of mental health innovation for the whole country. to boost economic growth, reduce health inequalities, and address the associated £13bn per annum the UK economy loses in productivity to poor mental health.”

People who use mental health services will have the chance to become researchers and co-design services for the future.

Professor Joe Rafferty CBE, Mersey Care’s Chief Executive, said: “I’m excited to announce the new mental health research centre. Our population experiences some of the highest rates of mental illness and associated physical health and social problems anywhere in the UK, but our region has historically received very little funding for mental health research.