CALLING ALL NURSES

Mental health nurse Oladayo Bifarin is delighted that nurses will be involved in the research.

“I believe every nurse is a researcher. We assess patients, plan their care, implement interventions and monitor side effects, but it’s not always appreciated as research. This creates an unnecessary barrier to progress.

“I’d like to see nurses given the time, flexibility, and support to get involved. They could be advocates, help with screening or recruiting patients onto research projects, collect and interpret data.

“If we want to stop mental health nurses from leaving the profession, they should be made to feel valued as innovators. By rewarding their clinical curiosity, nurses will feel like they are making a difference beyond frontline care.”

Oladayo wants the research to fulfil what he sees as an urgent need to improve mental health care, so it can be better understood to support patients as well as staff.

He’s pleased M-RIC plans to learn from cultures like Pakistan’s, where there are ongoing research projects empowering communities to act and prevent someone getting into a crisis. “We all want the same thing – to be loved and respected.”

• Dr Oladayo Bifarin is a Clinical Academic at Mersey Care.

SEA CHANGE...

Steve O’Keeffe is a service user and volunteer researcher with Mersey Care’s Life Rooms research and analysis team, helping to assess mental health care in the aftermath of COVID-19.

Steve suffered a bout of depression following a stressful move from the South and the loneliness of lockdown.

Since joining Life Rooms he’s tried everything from box fit to tai chi and music appreciation.

‘I’m not an academic or a big reader, but I’m good at understanding how things work, he says. ‘Those transferable skills serve me well as a researcher.’

Research Helped Me Get Better

Don Bryant went from mental health service user to researcher 15 years ago.

“My depression made it difficult just to get up in the morning. Research gave me the stimulus I needed,” he explains. “I felt I was doing something useful –and once I had an interest I rapidly got better.”

“It’s not like a school exam, there’s no expectation to become an expert immediately. But it makes such a difference if you’ve experienced mental illness and care.”