Research Assistant (Mental Health)

Mental Health at Manchester Met

Manchester Metropolitan University has a long history of applied research across several interdisciplinary strands and an exciting opportunity has arisen for an ambitious graduate/early career researcher to join our Mental Health Team embedded within the School of Nursing and Public Health. The impact of the team's work to date includes world-leading research on minimising restrictive interventions for people with mental health, learning disabilities and autistic people who have experienced injustices and long-term institutionalisation in mental health and related services.

We use improvement-orientated methods that challenge cultural barriers and power imbalances and we work closely with Policy Think Tank groups to influence practice and legislation at a local and national level. In the last few years, the team was awarded NIHR grants to lead on research in the area of health and justice inequalities for black men detained under the Mental Health Act, reducing restrictive practices for people with mental health and/or learning disabilities, as well as contributing to a wide range of research projects and impactful activities promoting and initiating change in mental health settings and beyond.

We have a well-established collaboration with NHS trusts in the region and have been commissioned on numerous occasions to strategically contribute to the development of their research strands, as well as to evaluate their initiatives to improve practice. Our research was acknowledged to have impacted on the development of local and national guidelines and training standards to minimise coercive practices in mental health settings. We have a strong international focus and are well linked with networks in this area of work.

Dr Alina Haines-Delmont is the lead for the Mental Health Cluster, currently working on a wide range of NIHR or NHS funded projects that examine the notion and impact of coercion, experiences of long-term institutionalisation and care pathways for people with mental health and learning disabilities or autism. This advert is in relation to one of these projects, i.e., An evaluation of the National HOPE(S) Programme to end long-term segregation (LTS) for children and young people, autistic people and/or people with learning disability in inpatient hospital settings.

The role

The successful applicant will work closely with the Chief Investigator of this project, Dr Alina Haines-Delmont and the project RA, Dr Kath Fradley, to contribute to the analysis of quantitative data and deliver the final report according to set deadlines. You will also contribute to high quality papers for publication emerging from this work. To a lesser extent, you might be required to contribute to other projects and activities within the mental health team, e.g., systematic reviews, data cleaning and synthesis. This is a great opportunity to strengthen your CV and publication track record, on your way to independence in the area of mental health research.

About you

You must have a degree in a relevant health related discipline, including Psychology, Nursing, Health Services Research. You should have excellent knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel, SPSS and descriptive statistics and some knowledge of Covidence. You should be able to work independently and as part of a team with a proven capacity to deliver work to agreed deadlines. You will be expected to take an appropriate degree of responsibility for key tasks such as data cleaning and analysis and report-writing.

Details about the post

This is a full-time fixed term appointment at Research Associate Grade 5 (£27,644 - £29,959) funded for 6 months. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. The successful applicant will be based within the School of Nursing and Public Health at MMU, in Manchester, to enable appropriate academic supervision and access to university resources, learning and development. There will be an opportunity to work from home, as appropriate and agreed with the Chief Investigator/line manager.