Interviews with UK Global Challenges Researchers and Overseas Collaborators on Embedding Mental Health Impact in Their Work Across Sustainable Development Goals, 2020-2021

Madill, Anna (2022). Interviews with UK Global Challenges Researchers and Overseas Collaborators on Embedding Mental Health Impact in Their Work Across Sustainable Development Goals, 2020-2021. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-855577

Worldwide, one billion people have a mental health disorder, placing these among the leading causes of ill-health and disability. Moreover, poor mental health disproportionately affects people in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) where there exists also a huge mental health workforce gap. Arguably, mental health is a right and tackling poor mental health is also a means of facilitating sustainable socio-economic development. Global Mental Health aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 3: 'Good Health and Well-Being,' specifically 3.4: 'By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.' Our ambition is to trigger a step-change in how the research community thinks about where, how and by whom mental health in LMICs can be impacted to benefit people experiencing poor mental health. Specifically, we believe there is untapped potential for global researchers to impact mental health whilst delivering their core (non-mental health) project aims, and that this can be done without significant resource implications. Therefore, to accelerate global action on mental health our long-term aim is to produce a Global Mental Health Impact Framework with potential for use in all research in developing countries. Our first stage project will establish a foundation and pathway towards this long-term aim by creating a beta version of the Impact Framework, based on arts and humanities methodologies first, ready for future testing and development across a broad range of GCRF projects in a second stage application. At this second stage, we will also develop an implementation plan to support funders, researchers and LMIC partners to understand and use the Framework. The Challenge Cluster brings together 16 GCRF projects funded by the AHRC, ESRC and MRC, a University of Leeds (UoL) AHRC-GCRF Network Plus, and UoL AHRC-led GCRF Hub totalling over £6.5 million and collaborator from outside the academy who has worked on non-GCRF ODA-oriented projects. A huge advantage of the Cluster is that it builds on the activities and resources of Praxis: Arts and Humanities for Global Development: an AHRC-led GCRF Hub at the UoL. We will develop our own Praxis Nexus approach to bring together what has been found and engage with researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers to accelerate impact on a cross-national scale commensurate with the significance of the GCRF programme. Measurable, realistic, achievable objectives for the first-stage 12-month project are to:- 1. Complete a scoping review of (i) material practices and (ii) implicit and explicit mental health activities in non-mental health focused GCRF projects funded to date; 2. Complete a report outlining the basis for a Global Mental Health Impact Framework around collaborative material practices; 3. Develop and strengthen equitable international academic, policy and practitioner partnerships and build capacity in LMIC and the UK; and, 4. Use this work to assist in developing the agenda and programmes of research to be undertaken in the second stage application. In relation to potential applications and benefits we will: 1. Raise the awareness of UK and LMIC funders, researchers and organisations that they may be missing 'low hanging fruit' opportunities to impact mental health in their portfolios and projects; 2. Provide them with a basic understanding of how Global Mental Health challenges can be conceptualised and identified in non-mental health focused projects; and 3. Explain ways that diverse projects could achieve mental health impact at micro, meso and macro levels as part of their routine activities without overstretching project expertise or resources; and, 4. Stimulate LMIC organisations and government departments to think about how they might integrate mental health impact across their diverse agendas and projects.

Data description (abstract)

26 online interviews were conducted of which 22 are available in this archive. One female UK interviewee did not audio-record clearly enough for accurate transcription; and one female UK interviewee and two non-UK interviewees - one man, one woman - gave consent for analysis in the orginal project but not for making their anonymised transcript more widely available. UK Sample Gender: 3 men, 11 women (2 women interviewed together) GCRF Strategic Portfolio Theme: 1 Education, 7 Health, 1 Cities, 2 Security, 1 Food, 1 Environment Research Council: 3 AHRC, 1 BBSRC, 1 EPSRC, 2 ESRC, 3 MRC, 3 NERC, 0 STFC World Region (Some sampled projects covered more than one region): 5 Africa, 4 Americas, 2 SE Asia, 1 Europe, 1 Eastern Mediterranean, 4 Western Pacific, 2 Global Non-UK Sample Gender: 4 men, 9 women GCRF Strategic Portfolio Theme: 3 Education, 7 Health, 0 Cities, 1 Security, 2 Food, 0 Environment Research Council: 2 AHRC, 1 BBSRC, 2 EPSRC, 2 ESRC, 3 MRC, 1 NERC, 0 STFC, 2 Not Applicable World Region (Some sampled projects covered more than one region): 2 Africa, 3 Americas, 3 SE Asia, 1 Europe, 1 Eastern Mediterranean, 3 Western Pacific, 1 Global

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Madill Anna	University of Leeds	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9406-507X

Sponsors:

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci, Global Challenges Research Fund

Grant reference:

EP/T023813/1

Topic classification:

Social welfare policy and systems
Health
Psychology

Keywords:

MENTAL HEALTH, OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE, RESEARCH WORK, SUSTAINABILITY, MENTAL HEALTH ATTITUDES, GLOBALIZATION

Project title:

Mainstreaming global mental health: A praxis nexus approach, 2021

Grant holders:

Anna Madill, Raghu Raghavan, Karina Croucher, Brian Brown, Rebecca Graber, Stuart Taberner, Siobhan Hugh-Jones, Paul Cooke, Jane Plastow, Rebecca King, Erminia Colucci, Tolib Mirzoev, Adrian Evan

Project dates:

From	To
1 June 2000	30 November 2021

Date published:

07 Apr 2022 12:51

Last modified:

07 Apr 2022 12:52

Coverage and Methodology

Temporal coverage:

From	To
1 September 2015	31 May 2020

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 October 2020	31 July 2021

Geographical area:

Global

Country:

United Kingdom, Europe

Data collection method:

GCRF grants were scoped using information on the UKRI gateway to research (GtR: https://gtr.ukri.org/). GCRF grants were excluded if their primary research aim was mental health, i.e. which were classified on GtR as ‘Mental Health’ Research Topic or Health Category (N = 36). The remaining grants, awarded from the beginning of the GCRF programme towards the end of 2015 until the end of May 2020, were sampled for diversity across research council, GCRF strategic challenge portfolio, and world region: Africa, Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific (https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/regional-offices). Where sample diversity allowed, closed (total pool N = 484) rather than active (total pool N = 740) grants were selected for completeness of available GtR information. Differentiation of lead organisation and Research Category was also sought (final N = 36). The principal investigator (PI) of each of the 36 grants was emailed an invitation to take part in an interview. All who expressed interest were interviewed. One reminder email was sent to PIs of projects that would increase the diversity of our interview sample, specifically male PIs, PIs in LMIC, and PIs of STFC grants. This secured 11 interviews with UK PIs (one jointly with the grant research assistant), one with a co-investigator based in the UK at the time of the grant, and one with a non-UK-based PI. We snowball sampled by asking each of these interviewees to introduce us to a non-UK-based collaborator. In this way, we secured a further five interviews and snowballed again to a sixth. We then used our own GCRF networks and returned to the GtR to close gaps in our sampling, securing a further four interviews and snowballing to a fifth. Our networks and snowballing provided us access to two non-UK-based collaborators who are experts in mental health and it was decided to undertake these interviews to add this perspective to the project. In total, we conducted 13 UK-based interviews and 13 non-UK-based interviews across 18 GCRF grants, two of the non-UK-based interviewees associated more tangentially with the GCRF programme as networked collaborators. Interviewing stopped when sampling for diversity across relevant variables was met. The interviewer reviewed the information sheet, answered questions, and took verbal consent to take part in the study and to be recorded. A semi-structured format was used such that the interviewer covered pre-planned areas relevant to the research question, while using follow-ups to elicit further detail and facilitating the interviewee to lead the topical flow. The following questions were always covered: Can you tell me about your involvement in GCRF/international development work?; To what extent is there potential to incorporate mental health impact into the kind of work you do?; What do you see as the main challenges of incorporating mental health impact into the kind of work you do?; How might these challenges be overcome?; What support would enable you to incorporate mental health impact in your work?; To what extent do you think there is an appetite to incorporate mental health impact into the kind of work you do? Each interview lasted around one hour.

Observation unit:

Individual

Kind of data:

Text

Type of data:

Qualitative and mixed methods data

Resource language:

English

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