Rethinking Schizophrenia and Quality-of-Life
Schizophrenia affects around 700,000 people in the UK and Rethink Mental Illness wants to influence system change, by gathering lived experience insights into what it is like to live with schizophrenia.
We want to hear from people who have lived experience of schizophrenia, whether through a diagnosis themselves, or as a family member, carer, or friend of someone living with schizophrenia.
You will be paid for your time with remuneration of £50 per session.
To find out if you’re eligible to get involved, fill in our online expression of interest form or contact recoveryandoutcomes@rethink.org by Sunday 15th September 2024
About the project
Rethink Mental Illness aims to find out what it means for people living with schizophrenia to live the fullest life possible.
- The purpose of this project is to engage with a diverse range of people with lived experience of a diagnosis of schizophrenia, to gather their views and experiences of what achieving and maintaining wellbeing is like when living with this diagnosis, and later to explore what a good quality of life, and fulfilment looks like.
- We will be designing the project with people with lived experience and families and carers and then holding engagement sessions with a range of people with lived experience.
- At the end of the project, we will produce a report that reflects what people have told us and is used to influence the mental health system.
How you can get involved
Welfare Benefits
- If you currently receive any welfare benefits, understanding the potential impact of accepting payment for involvement in this project is really important. While remuneration (involvement payments) for your time is voluntary, it's important to know that receiving involvement payments can affect certain benefits e.g. Universal Credit.
- It is your responsibility to comply with the conditions of your benefits. However, we have a responsibility to provide information which helps you to make informed decisions about whether to join an involvement opportunity like this, and whether to accept involvement payment.
- We strongly advise talking to your Work Coach before accepting payment. If you want to go ahead, we can provide a letter for you to give to your Work Coach, explaining what your involvement is, and that it is not employed work but is known as ‘service user involvement’, a term that they should be aware of
Who we want to hear from
We would like to hear from anyone with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or who is a family member, carer or friend of someone living with schizophrenia.
We would like to involve people from a range of different demographic backgrounds, ensuring as diverse as possible engagement with people. We will focus on engaging people with or from different:
- Ages and gender identities
- Religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds
- Neurodiverse experiences
- Physical health backgrounds and abilities
- Sexual orientations
- Geographical areas in England
The above is not an exhaustive list. If you are not from a group listed above, and fulfil the criteria to participate, we are still very interested in hearing from you.
Frequently Asked Questions
For further information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), linked below:
Rethinking Schizophrenia FAQ Document
- If you would like a copy of the FAQ document, please email us at recoveryandoutcomes@rethink.org
Accessibility Information
We also want to ensure we include people with different communication and accessibility needs.
- If you’re unable to complete the online form and are interested in taking part, please email us at recoveryandoutcomes@rethink.org and let us know how best to contact you.
To find out if you’re eligible to get involved, fill in our online expression of interest form or contact recoveryandoutcomes@rethink.org by Sunday 15th September 2024
This project is funded by Boehringer Ingelheim Limited to support Rethink Mental Illness’s work in understanding more about the experiences of people living with schizophrenia. The final report will be fully anonymised and will not contain any personal data, and will be shared with Boehringer for information only. Rethink Mental Illness have full editorial control of all content, which is reviewed by Boehringer in line with the ABPI (Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry) Code of Practice. The independence of Rethink Mental Illness is maintained.
NP-GB-104856/August 2024