Context 

Community Knowledge Matters (CKM) is collaborating with Professor Sarah-Anne Munoz (Division for Rural Health and Wellbeing, University of the Highlands and Islands, UHI) to develop a survey to better understand the priorities around mental health and wellbeing across the Highlands & Islands, as well as gathering thoughts around how communities and researchers could work better together in this work. 

The results of this will help shape the network's direction in the provision of tailored support and will be shared in order to inform future research directions for network members, as well as to help influence policy and decision-making around mental wellbeing.

This will also help inform the writing of a new collaborative international position paper on rural mental health research with colleagues from Australia, USA, Ireland, England, South Africa and Sweden. This international group is convened by Prof. Russell Roberts from Equally Well Australia and Charles Sturt University. Each country participating is undertaking a collaborative, community-engaged, approach to data collection, analysis and writing. 

In the spirit of the values of the network, we are setting up a specific working group that will be supported to develop this piece of work in Scotland, comprising community members from the Highlands and Islands – including those who may not have worked in research before – to be involved in all stages of the process. There will also be opportunities for the wider Community Knowledge Matters network members to be able to feed into shaping the questions and analysing the data, through our regular community of practices. 

We are keen to acknowledge the consultation and research work that has been done before rather than asking the same questions again and this work will connect to the wider mapping already been done in the network. It will also be important that this work is done ethically and there will be explicit links to the wider participatory ethics working group that the network is developing.

What will happen with the data

The results of this will be shared as open data for other organisations to make use of. We anticipate using secure data collection software, hosted by UHI, to collect and store survey responses. We will then ensure that all data is anonymised, before providing a collated dataset for free non-commercial use through the Community Knowledge Matters (CKM) website. Although our data will shape international work, it will also be free to use for all CKM network members and will be acknowledged as an output of the Community Knowledge Matters network.

Who we are looking for

We are especially looking for community members (either as individuals or representing community organisations) based in the Highlands and Islands who are interested in co-designing and co-analysing this priority setting survey as part of this working group.

No previous experience of working in research is needed. We will be looking for 4 individuals to join this working group with a wide range of experiences.

Commitment and Timeline 

We anticipate that this will involve around 8 - 10 meetings between December 2023 and July 2024. Activities will include: going through the process of co-designing the survey, feeding into an ethics process, helping support the dissemination and delivery of the survey, co-analysing the data and then sharing and writing up the results. No experience will be required as working group members will be supported by Science Ceilidh and UHI to take part and will be attributed as co-authors on any publications and presentations. 

These meetings will mostly be online via Zoom, with potentially 1 meeting in-person. 

The working group will be facilitated and supported by Professor Sarah-Anne Munoz and the Science Ceilidh Community Knowledge Matters team.

Key Dates & Milestone

Thursday 23 November: Information Session about the Opportunity

Tuesday 28 November: Deadline for the Expression of Interest

Thursday 30 November: Notice of who is in the Working Group

EITHER Monday 4 December / Tuesday 5 December / Wednesday 6 December: First Meeting

Mid December (TBC): Second Meeting

8 January: Third Meeting

9 January: Deadline for the UHI internal ethics process

March: Fourth Meeting & Launch of Survey

May: Survey Deadline / Fifth & Sixth Meetings

June: Seventh Meeting

26 June: Potential presentation to International Conference in Utrecht between 24 and 28 of June

July: Eighth and Ninth meeting: Co-writing Sessions

Support and Accessibility 

If you are joining this working group in an unsalaried remit (i.e. this is not considered part of your current job role which is already salaried) we are able to support up an honorarium for your participation. This is £75 per meeting (around 2 hours) including 2 hours preparation beforehand. This is based on the National Institute of Health and Care Research recommendations. 

Any access and support needs to enable you to fully participate will be covered as well, and expenses (for example for the in-person meeting) will be covered. 

If you have any questions about this, including how this might interact with social security, please do get in touch.

Values and wider vision of the Community Knowledge Matters network

The Community Knowledge Matters network believes that more equitable partnerships between communities, researchers and decision makers can support better wellbeing, and that all forms of knowledge and experiences around mental health should be used to inform best practice and policy changes. 

This co-priority survey is designed to listen to and learn from the knowledge that already exists within communities around mental health & wellbeing across the Highlands & Islands, whilst also providing an opportunity for communities to help shape the design of the questions, how they should be asked, and how they should be understood.

This sits in line with our network beliefs that:

• We need diverse and integrated forms of knowledge to make sense of the world.

• Everyone’s expertise matters.

• Research is never ‘neutral’ – there are always underlying values and ethical & political tensions to navigate.

• We are better working together and sharing resources to effect structural change.

• Researchers are not separate from communities.

The ethos of the working group will be based on our network values of: equity, inclusivity, collaboration, respect and integrity. These values will also inform our decision-making process about who is included in this working group. 

How we will decide 

Whilst we cannot be fully representative of the communities in the Highlands and Islands, we will be ensuring that we have a diverse range of people including through geography, scale, and groups who have been historically underrepresented in research processes (including through protected characteristics). 

Successful applicants to the working group will be selected at a decision-making meeting with the participation of an external community group.

Decisions will be communicated on 30th November. In the event that there isn't a diverse range of individuals, we may do some further targeted recruitment through another application process.

Frequently Asked Questions

I’ve never done this kind of thing before, can I still get involved!

Absolutely! We aren’t looking for people who might be considered ‘experts’ in the field but instead we are specifically wanting to work with community members who don’t usually have the opportunity to be involved in research processes, or in designing co-priority setting surveys. There will be other ways for researchers or others involved in this field to contribute to the process via other means but in this working group we are especially keen to foreground community knowledge and insights from people with lived experience. 

What is a ‘community’? 

This could be any group of individuals sharing experiences, characteristics, interests or needs, within the Highlands & Islands. The community does not need to be a formal group or organisation and applications can be made by an individual. 

What areas are included in the Highlands & Islands?

For the purpose of the Community Knowledge Matters Network, we are especially keen to work with people based in the following council areas: Highland Council, Moray Council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Orkney Islands Council, Shetland Islands, Argyll and Bute Council, Isle of Arran and Isle of Cumbrae.

How much opportunity will I have to shape the survey? Will my voice be listened to? 

Working group members will co-create the survey together, deciding on what questions are important to ask, how they should be asked, how the survey should be distributed, and how the results should be analysed and understood. Working group members will also have the opportunity to help shape the ethics process, which will be managed through the University of the Highlands and Islands. 

What will happen with the results of the survey? Who will own the data?

This is a collaboration between the Community Knowledge Matters network and Professor Sarah-Anne Munoz at the University of the Highlands & Islands (UHI). The survey results will be stored securely through UHI software and then will be made publicly available, after it has been anonymised, so that other organisations can use it for their own non-commercial purposes. The data will also feed into an academic position paper on rural mental health research which will be co-written by an international group of researchers working with communities on better understanding rural mental health across Scotland, England, Ireland, Sweden, the USA, South Africa and Australia. Members of the working group will also have the opportunity to help shape this paper and will be acknowledged as co-authors. 

Who else will be involved in the working group?

The working group will be facilitated by Professor Sarah-Anne Munoz (Division for Rural Health and Wellbeing, University of the Highlands and Islands), and Lewis Hou & Lauren Pyott from the Community Knowledge Matters (CKM) network. We will also have a representative from the CKM steering group, and a young person, who will join the working group alongside the 4 additional community members. Wider members of the Community Knowledge Matters network will be able to feed in ideas and help shape the survey through the monthly community of practices. 

How much time do I need to set aside for the working group? How much preparation will there be between meetings?

We anticipate that the working group will meet up to 10 times between December 2023 and July 2024. Meetings are likely to last no longer than 2 hours each, and there will be around  2 hours of preparation time between meetings which might include reading through and reviewing notes and responding to emails around planning for example. Please see the timeline above for a likely schedule and be aware that there will be a few meetings before 9th January, to work with the university ethics timescale, after which time meetings will be slightly more spread out.

Can I get paid for this work? 

If you are not taking part in this working group as part of existing paid work (i.e. you are already currently salaried and this fits within your job remit), an ‘honourarium’ of £75 per meeting (including any preparation time) is available. This figure is based off rates recommended by the National Institute of Health & Care Research. If you are unsure about whether you can claim for this, or there are any other contexts to consider (for example, how this may interact with benefits or Universal Credit) please get in touch and we are happy to chat about it.

What kind of access and support needs could be covered?

We are keen to hear from you about what kinds of support would be useful but this could include things like childcare cover, respite care for those with other caring responsibilities, language interpreters or documents in other formats. Please get in touch if you think there’s something we could do or provide to make participation in the working group more possible for you. 

What is the process for joining the working group?

We have a short application form which needs to be filled out by 28 November 5pm. This is to ensure that anyone who is interested in the opportunity has a chance to apply. We will then be choosing up to 4 people to join the working group from a community perspective, and we will make our selection process based on ensuring a diversity of people in the group, including as wide a possible spread in terms of geography and experience. We will make this decision with an external community organisation for transparency. 

When am I likely to hear if I will be in the working group?

We will let people know our decisions by 30 November. If we do not have enough applications or there is not a diverse enough group, we may re-open the application process.

If you have any other questions

Come along to the online information session on Thursday 23 November, 12pm (sign up below) or get in touch with the network coordinator.