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Youth mental health is a global priority challenge. Young people deserve to have their needs met by mental health research that asks and answers the questions that matter most to them. Achieving this goal requires researchers to view young people with lived experience not only as participants in their studies or recipients of their findings, but as partners and leaders in their own right. This requires citizen science to adopt radically different ways of working with young people that facilitate equal contribution throughout the research process. Beyond the direct impacts of enhancing both researchers and young people’s knowledge and skills, this can ensure more relevant, accessible and impactful research is conducted and communicated.
Youth LIVES is a citizen science mental health research project that seeks to produce priority mental heath research proposals for young people. The project brings together youth co-researchers (young people aged 14-21 with lived experience of mental health) with mental health researchers across a program of facilitated sessions to identify research areas of interest; conduct evidence mapping and other knowledge sharing activities; build appropriate research methods, and co-create and share a co-designed research proposal.
The project is split into 4 research teams, focused on youth priority topics identified through co-design sessions. These topics are
Our approach is based on radical collaboration: youth co-researchers are equal partners in identifying priority research questions and developing research proposals to address these. The project supports young people in being fully integrated into the design and development process, with capacity building, relationship building and financial reimbursement to enable young people to take an active role and work with confidence alongside professional researchers. Through peer-to-peer learning and signposting to methods and materials, we support researchers in making an authentic space for collaboration with the young people.
The project will continue through to December 2024 with the support of partners Leaders Unlocked and Mental Health Foundation, alongside support from UKRI and The Young Foundation.
Past event / See Rhys Archer's insights from the Youth LIVES project, as shared at the European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation (ENMESH) conference.
Past event / See Rhys Archer's insights from the Youth LIVES project, as shared at the European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation (ENMESH) conference.
The Youth LIVES project is led by SEI York and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, with contributions from the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York.
The citizen science group at SEI York aims to engage people in our research at a range of scales and geographic locations.
Journal article / The SAMHE project introduces a novel method to generate and analyze extensive datasets via collaborative citizen science methods, in this case with UK schools.
Past event / Sam Bland hosted this session on the SAMHE project and the opportunities and challenges of using web apps to engage young people in citizen science.
Design and development by Soapbox.
