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The Circadian Mental Health Network: Building an Inclusive Network

Updated: Dec 7, 2023

As part of our World Mental Health Day Blog Series, Dr Amy Ferguson shares the aims and objectives of the recently established Circadian Mental health Network.

 

The Circadian Mental Health Network is a collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and lived experience individuals from across the UK, which launched in March of this year. The main goal of this Network is to develop and support a community investigating circadian rhythms, sleep and mental health to drive a better understanding of their important relationships.


To achieve this goal we have four main objectives: setting the research agenda for mental health, sleep and circadian science; setting standards for data collection, data curation and data sharing; supporting researchers at the early stages of their careers working within mental health, sleep and circadian science; and building a sustainable and inclusive network of researchers, clinicians, and lived experience individuals.

You can find more about all of our objectives on our website. However, this World Mental Health Day, we want to focus on the work we have been doing to set the research agenda for mental health, sleep and circadian science. To set this research agenda, we need to identify the research priorities which feel the most important to experts in this area, including those with lived experience.


We have been working closely with The McPin Foundation to incorporate the views of individuals with lived experience of mental health conditions. During these last few months, we have had the pleasure of working with a fantastic Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) comprised of individuals from many different backgrounds, ages, and experiences. Working with the LEAP has already provided great insight into how to engage with different communities, and the LEAP themselves have highlighted several potential research questions that are important to individuals with lived experience of mental health. We have also been engaging with other partners focused on ensuring the involvement of lived experience individuals in research, including Bipolar Scotland and The Sleep Charity.


In partnership with the James Lind Alliance, we will soon be releasing a public survey to identify what are the questions that are important to people with lived experience of mental health conditions and disturbed circadian rhythms/sleep and vice versa. To ensure this survey will be relevant, accessible, and engaging for everyone, we will be working closely with a Steering Group. Members of our Steering Group include individuals with lived experience of mental health conditions, individuals with lived experience of disrupted circadian rhythms and sleep, clinicians, patient advocates, and research community members.


Working with both The McPin Foundation and the James Lind Alliance, we will soon be sharing our public survey to identify the important questions for research in the field of circadian rhythms, sleep, and mental health according to those who are impacted by this. We hope you can help us to share this survey widely.


Our aim throughout our work across the Network, is to ensure that we are working closely with individuals with lived experience in every possible aspect of the Network. Another example of this will be in our support of ECRs, we will be supporting work with a focus on co-production and the involvement of lived experience individuals, as well as consulting with our LEAP to identify ECR projects which are of interest to their research priorities. We will soon be launching funding available for ECRs working at the intersection of mental health, sleep and circadian science for networking activities, cross-training opportunities, and conference activities.


You can stay updated with all our work through our blog and social media. So, watch this space.

 

Dr Amy Ferguson

Amy is the Network Scientific Coordinator for the Circadian Mental Health Network. She is the central point of contact for anyone involved in the network or those with questions about the network. She is also a Postdoctoral Researcher, based at the University of Edinburgh, with a focus on the underlying genetic relationship between circadian rhythms and mental health. With a background in both molecular and population genetics, she completed a PhD in Psychiatric Genetics at the University of Glasgow, she has a particular interest in the impact of rare genetic variants in the general population.


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