My Voice Matters
What are we trying to do?
We are trying to understand what can prevent young people from getting involved in mental health research. By identifying these barriers, we can begin to co-design research processes that are more appealing and accessible to young people.
Why is this important?
Understanding what can get in the way of young people engaging in mental health research is vital if we want to shape more inclusive, effective, and impactful research that informs the development of mental health services. Young people often face unique mental health challenges, but their voices are underrepresented in the research that informs services and policy.
Without the input of young people - especially young people from underrepresented and intersectional identities and communities - we risk designing interventions that don’t reflect their lived experiences or meet their needs. Encouraging their engagement not only improves the quality and relevance of mental health research but also empowers young people as active contributors to the systems that affect their wellbeing.
How are we doing it?
Together with the Young People’s Mental Health Research Centre at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust and the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, we’re hosting a series of workshops, run by young people and Made by Mortals, where we’re exploring what can make mental health research involvement off-putting, and what could make it more appealing.
Two large engagement events have taken place so far, one in February 2024 and a second – the launch of the My Voice Matters initiative – in February 2025. There will be 4 further workshops looking at ‘Character Exchange’, ‘Tree of Life’ and ‘Facing Shadows’ to take place by September 2025 and a study celebration in February 2026. These summer workshops will help young people tell their stories, share their ideas for change, and design training materials to develop the next generation of research with young people to transform mental health research and services.
Discussions at the workshops will help to create a number of useful outputs, including:
- digital training modules
- ‘journey maps’ to show the barriers and opportunities that exist
- illustrations to bring the work to life
Findings
Each of the workshops has discussions on a range of topics linked to young people’s involvement in mental health research. People’s opinions and ideas will be gathered together as the project progresses with outputs and recommendations finalised by February 2026.
Here is additional information on the first two workshops.
February 2024 workshop
We explored three main questions in this session, which involved people from Pennine Care, Manchester Metropolitan University, Made by Mortals, 42nd Street, and Mindset Revolution:
- What would put young people off attending events to talk about mental health research?
- What should future events about young people's mental health research look like?
- What should researchers do differently to engage young people in conversations about research?
Feedback from the session was illustrated by the artist Tom Bailey.
Read more about the event and see the workshop feedback.
February 2025 launch event
This event brought together young people, researchers, and healthcare professionals to explore how we can make mental health research more inclusive and attractive to young people.
The session had 3 main themes, with discussion and creative activities designed to thoroughly explore each one:
- What makes it difficult for young people from different backgrounds to take part in mental health research?
- How should mental health research training be designed to be inclusive and accessible?
- What would help young people and researchers collaborate more effectively?
More Than Minutes created a detailed visual that captured the main points discussed at the launch:
Who are we working with?
- Young People’s Mental Health Research Centre at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Manchester Centre for Youth Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University
- Made by Mortals
- Tameside, Oldham and Glossop Mind (TOG Mind)
Funding information
This work is funded by the NIHR Mental Health Research Initiative.
More information
Programme Manager
Gill Rizzello
gill.rizzello@manchester.ac.uk