Partners

University of Stavanger

Researchers at the Faculty of Health Sciences at UiS constitute the largest academic environment within quality and safety in the health sector in Norway. It is recognized through participation in public investigations and hearings, as well as international expert groups. It is an interdisciplinary environment that involves nursing, medicine, psychology, sociology, security and engineering.

The Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (SNLA)

SNLA has an extensive research portfolio in the field of acute and pre-hospital health services with extensive collaboration with various clinical research environments nationally and internationally. It is important for the SHARE Centre that researchers with clinical medical research expertise are included in the collaboration.

NTNU Gjøvik

NTNU Gjøvik established a collaboration with UiS in 2014 on a separate research group in patient safety. The partnership with SHARE involves admission of research fellows at NTNU Gjøvik to the PhD program in Health and Medicine at UiS. In this way, joint expertise is built across the academic environments. The research group at NTNU specializes in human factors, teamwork and development of effective instruments and interventions.

Board

Board members

Henriette Thune (Dean of research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger)
Ann Kristin Wiik (Board leader, SHARE, SNLA)
Åsa Mäkitalo (external member, University of Gothenburg)
Anne-Lise Kristensen (external member, Patient and Userombudsman Oslo and Akershus, and Elderly ombudsman in Oslo)
Torunn Strømme (University of Stavanger)
Ingrid Tjoflåt (University of Stavanger)
Aud Obstfelder (NTNU Gjøvik)

Tips & Tools

Recommendations for involving adolescents in mental health research

1. Expand researchers’ knowledge and competence about adolescent involvement in research. Examples: Part of master students’ and PhD candidates’ curriculum, and additional training for their supervisors and other researchers.
2. Consider the ethical implications of involving adolescents in the research, including to ensure that all parties are aware of everybody’s rights and responsibilities.
3. Consider the need for involvement and shared decision-making power at different stages of the research. Agree on consultation, collaboration or control of the research.
4. Explore researchers’ and adolescents’ motives for participating, including their values, to establish a common starting point. This may also require consideration of the “research culture” within scientific communities, and potentially a need to change the culture.
5. Provide appropriate training and support for adolescents. Examples: Seminars providing an introduction to research, mental health research, research design and methods.Usea variety of approaches for communication, e.g. digital tools such as WhatsApp and Messenger.
6. Researchers’ and co-researchers’ willingness to contribute and agreement on adolescents’ roles and extent of involvement. Examples: Sharing experiences and perspectives, expanding own knowledge, and take on tasks. This may lead to decisions of whether adolescents participate as representatives or co-researchers.
7. Establish a good collaborative relationship and reduce power differentials. Spend time together to build a trusting relationship and reduce feelings of uncertainty. Avoid using research jargon.
8. Provide sufficient resources including funding and time to enable collaboration. Funding for remuneration, compensation of expenses (e.g. for travel), meetings and research activities.
9. Ensure diversity in adolescent representation suitable to the research project. Examples: Different cultural backgrounds, genders, sexual orientation, education, life experience and attitudes/approaches towards mental health.
10. Ensure flexible and effective project management, to ensure that goals are reached and everyone’s time and efforts are valued. Examples: Plan ahead of time, but adapt. Facilitate encouraging meetings. Adapt meeting times and venues to accommodate adolescents’ school, work and other activities/obligations (e.g. meet after working hours, weekends). Food and fun activities during meetings. Conflict management.

Reference: Viksveen P, Cardenas NE, Ibenfeldt M, Meldahl LG, Krijger L, Game JR, Andvik MM, Cuddeford O, Duerto S, Mustafa M, Tong M. Involvement of adolescent representatives and coresearchers in mental health research: Experiences from a research project. Health Expect. 2021 Nov 10. doi: 10.1111/hex.13383. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hex.13383

A guide to Patient and Stakeholder Involvement (PSI) in Research

As a part of SHARE – Centre for Resilience in Healthcare’s overarching vision of reforming the understanding of quality and safety of current healthcare systems , patient and stakeholder involvement (PSI) in SHARE’s research activities is a key strategic priority. The aim of SHARE’s PSI strategy is to encourage and facilitate a broad spectrum of patient and stakeholder involvement across all of SHARE’s research activities, to increase the relevance and impact of our research. Read this article for more information.