Research
How to get involved in research – and enjoy it.
Research can be challenging, stimulating and fun. Your involvement will range from providing data to studies, to supporting multisite studies through to leading research yourself.
Like most things, when you start out you need support. The best way to get a taste of research is to link with an established academic team and work alongside them. They will welcome serious offers of help and should be able to support you with your own work in due course. Be patient. You rarely get awarded Michelin stars for the your first few efforts at cooking. Research is likewise a complex process that takes planning, knowledge, expertise and resources.
Guide to research for child and adolescent psychiatry
My advice for applying for CESR - Vijayendra Waykar
CESR is a process to ensure applicants are able to demonstrate ‘equivalence’ to specialist registration in terms of their knowledge, skills and performance. Most applicants produce a bundle of evidence with comprehensive reports and case summaries but still fail to demonstrate the ‘equivalence’ which is a crucial part of the process.
My advice would be to pair up with at least 2 people who are in the process of applying for specialist registration within the next 1 year. This could be current ST 5 trainees within your trust. Speak to them about how they are collecting evidence for different ILOs (Intended learning Outcomes). For the purpose of CESR you would need roughly similar (probably a bit more) evidence to what ST6 trainees have collected for their final ARCP.
My advice would be to clearly set yourself a time period of 1-2 years and speak to you clinical supervisor and make relevant people in the trust (clinical director, medical director, director of medical education, SAS tutor) aware of your intention. Check how the trust can support you in this process. This could be in the form of agreeing a job plan including activities (Direct Clinical Care and Supporting Professional Activity) which will make it easy for you to collect evidence for your portfolio.
You could negotiate more allocated time for ‘portfolio work’ in your job plan. Most applicants I know spend a lot of their own time on weekends or annual leave in collecting evidence. I found it easy to collect evidence prospectively during working week. Keep your log book templates readily available around your desk area and complete them regularly and keep them up-to-date.
Mark out cases which you want to include in the evidence and get it validated from your supervisor. Remember if you collect evidence prospectively you are saving a lot of hassle later on. If possible, have your portfolio reviewed by supervisor once in 3-4 months to check if you are on track. Check with your ST5-6 colleagues/clinical supervisor if you are unsure about a particular competency from the curriculum.
GMC expects you to separate evidence into 4 GMC domains (Knowledge, skills and performance; Safety and Quality; Communication, Partnership and Teamwork; Maintaining trust). I found useful to distribute ILOs into different GMC domains, and this is included in the curriculum. For example, domain 4 will include ILO 14, 17 and 18. This will keep your evidence organised from the beginning.
I will recommend that you keep your Clinical Director and Medical Director informed about your progress in CESR application and look for any opportunities where you could take up ‘acting up consultant role’ within your specialty. This is not mandatory but will strengthen your application. This could be as short as one session (for example covering consultant ward round) or covering planned 2 weeks’ leave.
Identify a mentor who will support you if you are stuck for whatever reason; clinically or professionally during this process. The CESR process can be frustrating at times as the reward is not immediate. You would have to be focussed and remain motivated. Seek appropriate support from family and friends as appropriate and ensure you have time for recreational work as well.
Vijayendra Waykar
Child and adolescent research resources
My advice for applying for CESR - Vijayendra Waykar
CESR is a process to ensure applicants are able to demonstrate ‘equivalence’ to specialist registration in terms of their knowledge, skills and performance. Most applicants produce a bundle of evidence with comprehensive reports and case summaries but still fail to demonstrate the ‘equivalence’ which is a crucial part of the process.
My advice would be to pair up with at least 2 people who are in the process of applying for specialist registration within the next 1 year. This could be current ST 5 trainees within your trust. Speak to them about how they are collecting evidence for different ILOs (Intended learning Outcomes). For the purpose of CESR you would need roughly similar (probably a bit more) evidence to what ST6 trainees have collected for their final ARCP.
My advice would be to clearly set yourself a time period of 1-2 years and speak to you clinical supervisor and make relevant people in the trust (clinical director, medical director, director of medical education, SAS tutor) aware of your intention. Check how the trust can support you in this process. This could be in the form of agreeing a job plan including activities (Direct Clinical Care and Supporting Professional Activity) which will make it easy for you to collect evidence for your portfolio.
You could negotiate more allocated time for ‘portfolio work’ in your job plan. Most applicants I know spend a lot of their own time on weekends or annual leave in collecting evidence. I found it easy to collect evidence prospectively during working week. Keep your log book templates readily available around your desk area and complete them regularly and keep them up-to-date.
Mark out cases which you want to include in the evidence and get it validated from your supervisor. Remember if you collect evidence prospectively you are saving a lot of hassle later on. If possible, have your portfolio reviewed by supervisor once in 3-4 months to check if you are on track. Check with your ST5-6 colleagues/clinical supervisor if you are unsure about a particular competency from the curriculum.
GMC expects you to separate evidence into 4 GMC domains (Knowledge, skills and performance; Safety and Quality; Communication, Partnership and Teamwork; Maintaining trust). I found useful to distribute ILOs into different GMC domains, and this is included in the curriculum. For example, domain 4 will include ILO 14, 17 and 18. This will keep your evidence organised from the beginning.
I will recommend that you keep your Clinical Director and Medical Director informed about your progress in CESR application and look for any opportunities where you could take up ‘acting up consultant role’ within your specialty. This is not mandatory but will strengthen your application. This could be as short as one session (for example covering consultant ward round) or covering planned 2 weeks’ leave.
Identify a mentor who will support you if you are stuck for whatever reason; clinically or professionally during this process. The CESR process can be frustrating at times as the reward is not immediate. You would have to be focussed and remain motivated. Seek appropriate support from family and friends as appropriate and ensure you have time for recreational work as well.
Vijayendra Waykar
Research teams
The Child Psychiatry Research Society (CPRS) was founded in 1972 and exists to foster research in child and adolescent psychiatry, facilitate links between child and adolescent psychiatry researchers, and foster new research and researchers by organising scientific meetings.
Members can be full members, associate members, honorary members or corresponding members depending on their level of research activity and location. New members are nominated by full members to the secretary, Professor Dasha Nicholls (Imperial College London) d.nicholls@imperial.ac.uk. The current CPRS chair is Professor Alan Stein (University of Oxford).
| University | Team lead | Department or Group | Specialism | Happy to be approached to support CPRS nomination? Y/N |
| University of Bristol | Dr Helen Bould | Centre for Academic Mental Health | My work concerns the epidemiology, prevention and treatment of eating disorders. I am also involved in work on how young people use the online world | Y |
| Cambridge University | Professor Tamsin Ford, Emeritus Professor Ian Goodyear |
| The effectiveness of services and interventions for children’s mental health, particularly at the interface with schools. | Y |
| Cambridge University | Professor Paul Ramchandani |
| Early prevention of mental health problems, play, child development and education | Y |
| Cardiff University School of Medicine | Professor Anita Thapar | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Section and Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health | ADHD, adolescent depression: genetics, longitudinal research/development | Y |
| University College Dublin | Prof Fiona McNicholas | Academic Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Burnout; Eating Disorders; Transition; 22Q11DS; Liaison; Pharma o-epidemiology; ADHD | Y |
| University College London | Professor David Skuse | Population, Policy and Practice Dept, UCL GOS Insitute of Child Health | Our primary interest is in rare Mendelian genetic disorders that are associated with cognitive & behavioural phenotypes. Our longitudinal MRC-funded prigram (IMAGINE-ID) is following a national cohort of affected children into early childhood. We also collaborate internationally on Duchenne Muscular Dystrphy studies, including gene therapy, & are developing novel online assessment procedures for detecting ASD in BAME populations. | Y |
| University College London | Dr Priya Rajyaguru | Institute of cognitive neuroscience and division of psychiatry | Early prevention of mental health problems, social influences, executive functioning, rumination, repetitive negative thinking, depression, anxiety, adhd, asd, emotion regulation | Y |
| University of Edinburgh | Professor Ian Kelleher | Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Division of Psychiatry | We apply data science approaches to understanding trajectories of mental health and illness from childhood to adulthood. We also carry out pharmacoepidemiological research to understand how treatments in childhood and adolescence might affect mental health outcomes in adulthood. We're especially interested in new approaches to the prediciton and prevention of psychosis. We also look at the health economics associated with mental ill health in childhood and adolescence. | Y |
| University of Glasgow | Professor Helen Minnis | Adverse Childhood Experiences Lab | Our work aims to understand and develop interventions for the mental health problems associated with maltreatment | Y |
| Imperial College London | Professor Dasha Nicholls, Emeritus Profesor Elena Garralda, Dr Matthew Hodes, Dr Cornelius Ani | Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research Group | Prevention and early intervention in young people's mental health, especially emotional and behavioural dysregulation and the interface between physical and psychological health. | Y |
| Kings College London | Professor Stephen Scott | Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IOPPN) | Interventions work to improve child functioning, including reduction of antisocial behaviour and promotion of secure attachment. | Y |
| Kings College London | Professor Andrea Danese | Stress & Development Lab at IOPPN | Our work aims to understand how stressful experiences in childhood affect development and later health, and how to best support children who had such traumatic experiences. | Y |
| Kings College London | Professor Emily Simonoff | Department of Child & Adolescent PsychiatryAutism; ADHD; ID; Antisocial behaviour; Genetics; Epidemiology | Y | |
| Kings College London | Dr Gonzalo Salazar de Pablo | IOPPN | Prevention and Early Intervention of psychotic disorders and bipolar disorder/ affective disorders | Y |
| University of Leeds | Professor David Cottrell | Division of Psychological & Social Medicine | Understandings of & interventions for self-harm | Y |
| Newcastle University | Dr Aditya Sharma | Translational & Clinical Research Instuitute, Faculty of Medical Sciences | Mood disorders in children, adolescents & young adults.
Digital interventions, Global mental health, Paediatric psychopharmacology trials, links with autism & neurodevelopmental disorders | Y |
| University of Nottingham | Professor Kapil Sayal, Prof Chris Hollis (Full Members); Dr Josephine Holland, Dr Puja Kochhar, Dr Pallab Majumber (Associate Members) | Institute of Mental health | Our main research themes & expertise span intervention research (RCTs), Health Services Research, Perinatal & developmental epidemiology; Digital technology; Biological mechanisms undepinning psychiatric disorders; Translational neuroscience; Psychopharmacology; Systematic reviews | Y |
| University of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | Dr Pallab Majumder | Institute of Mental health | Mental health, illness, intervention and service provision for Looked After Children. Mental health and treatment for refugee children. Transition of care between different parts of the mental health and care system. | Y |
| University of Nottingham and Cambridge & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust | Dr Anupam Bhardwaj | Institute of Mental health | Clinical trials for Mood Disorders in children & adolescents; Evidence based service developments | Y |
| University of Oxford | Professor Alan Stein | Department of Psychiatry | The development of very young children & adolescents in the face of adversity including parental physical illness, psychological disorders, poverty & malnutrition. | Y |
| University of Oxford | Professor Mina Fazel | Department of Psychiatry | School-based mental health interventions; | Y |
| University of Oxford | Dr Tony James & Professor Francis Szele | Department of Psychiatry | Stem cell research in early-onset schizophrenia and healthy adolescents. | Y |
| Queen Mary University of London | Professor Dennis Ougrin | Wolfson Institute of Population Health | Therapeutic interventions for adolescents with self-harm and understanding early predictors of self-harm | Y |
| University of Reading | Dr Leticia Gutierrez-Galve | Therapeutic interventions for adolescents with self-harm | Y | |
| University of Southampton | Professor Samuele Cortese | Centre for Innovation in Mental Health | Advanced evidence synthesis methods (network meta-analyses, individual participant data meta-anlyses, dose-response meta analyses, umbrella reviews etc) and prediction science in neurodevelopmental disorders | Y |
| Tavistock Research Unit | Dr Eilis Kennedy | Tavistock Research Unit | Clinical trials; Early intervention & prevention; Longitudinal research; Gender identity; Personalised intervenions | Y |
| University of York (Hull & York Medical School) | Professor Bernadka Dubicka (also Honorary MAHSC Chiar Univeristy of Manchester) | Department of Health Sciences | Clinical trials for adolescent depression; brief interventions for depression; online harms; environment & mental health | Y |
| University of York (Hull & York Medical School) | Professor Paul Tiffin | Mental Health & Addictions Research Group | Mental health services, the health workforce, machine learning and predictive modelling in youth mental health | Y |