By Liverpool YPAG,
Blog by Sarah Harrison
The last year has been a busy year for us at the Anxiety and depression in Young people (AnDY) research clinic as we have set up our first Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group for young people. In August we invited everyone from the Berkshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service anxiety and depression pathway along to our launch event where we asked them what would make them want to get involved with PPI. They gave us lots of great ideas and we now have a group (called the AnDY Group) of 8 young people aged between 13 and 18 who meet twice a term on Saturday afternoons. They have their own experiences of anxiety or depression and are now working alongside the researchers to make a difference to the work carried out at the University of Reading. Their parents have also been working hard within their own PPI group (called the AnDY Parents Group) which meets at the same time as the young people’s group giving a parents perspective on our research projects. To find out more about the parents group click here.
The researchers have been really impressed by the impact these groups have already made on their work and we hope to continue to build the groups over the next year so we can make an even bigger difference to children and young people with anxiety and depression. 
To find out further information about the group click here
Another exciting project we are starting next term is working with one of our local schools to run a group for their students who have experience of anxiety and depression. This will help us to engage with even more young people with a broad range of experiences, making our research even more effective.
If you would like more information or if you would like to gain feedback on your study from the group please contact
Sarah.harrison2@berkshire.nhs.uk
0118 3788926
The AnDY young person’s group is now part of the GenerationR Alliance which is a forum recently established to collate, disseminate and measure the impact of children, young people and family involvement in health research activities. For further information about the Alliance and to join click here
Read about the latest GOSH YPAG meeting in March by Alexis
An educational short film made for, and presented by, primary school children.
We play Pictionary using research concepts intead of the usual game cards, allocated to different levels of difficulty.
