Grant: Project Grant

Background. It is increasingly viewed as important to engage people with lived experience (PWLE) of mental health and/or substance use challenges and family members (/F) in research about their experiences and needs. However, there is no measurement tool available to measure the impacts of PWLE/F engagement on the research conducted. Our team has drafted a novel measurement tool for this purpose. Objective. This study aims to refine and test a new tool to measure the impacts of PWLE/F engagement on the research conducted. Method. We propose to first pilot test the tool with a small number of researchers and PWLE/F in order to refine it. We then propose to conduct a full study of 200 researchers and PWLE/F, who will complete the new tool and other tools for comparison purposes. We will conduct analyses to ensure that the scale measures relevant aspects of the impacts of engagement on the research conducted. In a sub-study, we will explore how engagement works when the impacts are larger, versus when the impacts are smaller. Conclusions. This study will provide the research community with an easy-to-use measure of the impacts of engagement on research. Research teams will then be able to measure the impacts of their PWLE/F engagement processes, demonstrating in what areas the impacts are greatest and where impacts remain to be made. This will support the emerging science of PWLE/F engagement in research with outputs that are relevant to all those involved.