October 2024

We’ve been engaging with other stakeholders and networks about the work we’ve collectively been doing over the past 18 months, including with a group of students from the Educational Leadership and Counseling Department at Texas A&M University in the United States. This study visit was coordinated by Dr. Steve Bain, who has been part of an international group exploring the ethics of rural mental health research globally, alongside our partner Dr. Sarah-Anne Munoz who has also been co-facilitating our Co-Priority Survey Working Group.

The study visit provided us with an opportunity to share and contrast our experiences of supporting community-led research around mental health between the Highlands & Islands and the State of Texas, prompting a fascinating discussion about the politics of distributing funding to rural areas, and the role that the third sector plays alongside government-run support services. Whilst it was encouraging to hear how inspired they had been from learning about examples of community-led health and wellbeing practice here, it was also useful to hear of some of the common challenges we are facing either side of the Atlantic, and start thinking about where collaborative efforts to combat these more structurally might be useful.

You can read a copy of the short position paper co-written by Dr. Sarah-Anne Munoz and Dr. Steve Bain, alongside other international colleagues, sharing ten principles on rural mental health research. This was partly informed by our own process of co-producing a co-priority survey on doing mental health research in rural areas, and our survey working group will be responding to this paper, with reflections from our own practice and experience.

Study visit from Texas A&M University students

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