Tell Us! What Questions about Mental Health Does Research Need to Answer?

For which topic were research priorities identified?

mental illness

In which location was the research priority setting conducted?

Europe - Austria; Europe - Germany

Why was it conducted at all?

No rationale provided.

What was the objective?

to identify experiences, observations and open questions in the field of mental illness by involving patients and other experts

What was the outcome?

a list of 3 research topics

How long did the research prioritization take?

January 2015 - March 2016

Which methods were used to identify research priorities?

survey; workshop

How were the priorities for research identified exactly?

Step 1: setting up project: establishing advisory group, community building, recruiting partner organizations. Step 2: survey 1: collecting research questions: participants invited to submit their questions for research via online platform: "Tell us! In your opinion, what questions about mental illness should research take up?", 400 submissions. Step 3: data processing: cleaning, thematic analysis, resulting in 446 sub-topics, 17 research topics and 7 research areas. Step 4: survey 2: community voting: participants were asked to vote for two of the seven research areas. Step 5: survey 3: expert voting: international jury asked to assess the degree of novelty of the questions and topics as well as their relevance for research and society, results of survey 2 and survey 3 resulted in three high-priority research topics. Step 6: workshop: ideas lab: diverse group of experts from a range of disciplines came together to formulate research projects, generate research proposals, decide on research groups, resulting in the foundation of two research groups investigating the two most pressing research questions/topics on mental health

Which stakeholders took part?

Patients, family members, nurses, doctors and therapists, researchers. Survey 1: 400 participants: 40% patients, 17% family members. Survey 2: 217 participants. Survey 3: 9 participants (patient organizations, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychiatric nursing and clinical psychology). Workshop: 29 researchers.

How were stakeholders recruited?

Participants were recruited widely. Partner organizations were asked to distribute the survey link.

Were stakeholders actively involved or did they just participate?

Stakeholders not only participated but were also actively involved in the research prioritization process: They were part of an advisory board. The advisory board consisted of 10 members.