The research project, Philosophy of Psychiatry and Lived Experience: New Models of Public Mental Health is led by philosopher Dr Anna Berqvist in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Mental Health Foundation, the Royal Institute of Philosophy and the Collaborating Centre for Values-Based Practice in Health and Social Care at the University of Oxford, with support from PhD candidate Alana Wilde.

Public mental health is a rapidly expanding area of interdisciplinary research, linking academics, charitable foundations, NGOs and policy makers. Complementing recent work on biomarkers and predictive genetic screening in psychiatric medicine, philosophical methodologies are well positioned to address the gaps in our theoretical understanding of concepts of quality of life, and shared decision-making: key to the development of an inclusive and efficient approach to public mental health. This is particularly true with regard to the role of patients as experts, as real contributors of knowledge in the establishment of public health literature bases. 

This is an exciting opportunity to join the team either as a (a) social media research intern for disseminating research or (b) editorial assistant research intern to help review literature and forward-scope research in completing an academic book volume on philosophy and public mental health arising from a Public Festival on Philosophy of Psychiatry and Lived Experience funded by the Royal Institute of Philosophy Grant at the HOME Art Centre on 27 April 2022.

The research intern will help review the extant literature in philosophy of psychiatry on lived experience in mental health research, provide editorial and scholarly support in the field to help completing academic publications and develop a new public mental health literacy ethical research framework.

The second social media research internship involves maintaining the project website and regular blogging about philosophy and public mental health to help construct online study resources. They will also manage key social media functions such as tweeting key project research initiatives to disseminate knowledge and solicit feedback.

The Royal Institute of Philosophy Public Festival award is a highly prestigious prize award in Philosophy, with only one prize awarded annually nationally. In addition to significant conference the award includes a separate RIP Supplement book publishing contract with Cambridge University Press that the research intern will help achieve together with principal investigator Dr Bergqvist under the supervision of PhD candidate Alana Wilde. The role of the editorial research intern involves collaborating with external research partners, maintaining regular contact with contributing authors and providing editorial assistance in soliciting book chapters. It will also involve forward-scoping the literature base for a planned Handbook in the field.

The project builds on Bergqvist’s extant 4-year AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award (CDA) project Lived Experience and Personal Values in the Philosophy of Psychiatry: Reframing Evidence in Developing a New Public Mental Health Approach to Serious Mental Illness in partnership with the NGO The Mental Health Foundation (MHF). The MHF will also be making a significant third-party financial investment in the University through its establishment of a pilot Mental Health Foundation NorthWest England Regional Hub in Manchester. Students involved in the research project will thereby benefit from the external support from the MHF.

We will seek to appoint a student of the highest calibre with a philosophical interest in of mental health – for example narrative ethics and medical anthropology, epistemic injustice in mental health and illness, expertise by experience (EbE) in psychiatric medical education, peer-learning and self-management, or public mental health campaigning.

The selection and recruitment of students will follow the good-practice guidelines for MMU.

The opportunity is open to anyone with the right motivation. Students with lived experience of mental illness or as long-term condition (as service user or carer) are especially welcome to apply.

Applicants will also need to demonstrate an awareness of the processes of social justice and patient-led research.