Families as Allies is helping the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) design a research proposal to submit to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) about the best types of mental health treatment for children ages birth to 21. The final proposal will focus on comparing treatment approaches for a specific condition.
One of PCORI’s core values is that researchers should partner with the people a project is about. We want to partner with families at every step of this proposal and project.
Families as Allies and UMC are hosting a virtual meeting on January 9 from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. (registration is required) for any parents and caregivers* raising children with mental health challenges who are interested in giving feedback about this research proposal. We also want to hear how to support the ongoing process of families and researchers learning from each other.
These are the things we’d like to learn from families in the January 9 meeting:
- What do families think this research project should focus on?
- PCORI has educational materials for parents, families and caregivers unfamiliar with research to introduce them to patient-centered research concepts and practices. We’d like to hear parents’ and caregivers’ ideas on whether and how these materials could bring families and researchers together.
- PCORI also has educational materials to help researchers and clinicians become more family—and patient-centered. We want to know what parents and caregivers think of these materials and how they want to be involved in helping researchers learn about family—and patient-centered care.
- Families can contribute to this work in many ways—we want to hear how you see yourself fitting into this project.
If you are raising a child, ages birth to 21, with a mental health challenge, please join us on January 9 from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. via Zoom (registration required) to learn more about this opportunity to work together on this proposal and project. Please invite other families to join as well.
*A caregiver is a person raising a child who is not the child’s parent, such as a grandparent or foster parent.
