Patient-Public Involvement
Anjie Chhapia
LEAP member
I joined TYPPEX via McPin Foundation as a Lived Experience Participant from the onset. My personal experience of using local IAPT service and how it could offer a service catered to the need of the general population experiencing intensity in their thoughts who may not fit onto the IAPT criteria enthused my curiosity to learn how TYPPEX would tailor to these needs particularly for those who were from ethnic background and faced barriers in engaging with any mental health services . I have been able to contribute my lived experience to the study and have also been able to contribute towards designing the training/resource and add value not only to the studies but also ensure coproduction has been embedded into the whole project enhancing the value of the TYPPEX Project throughout.
Joanna Fox
LEAP member
Dr Joanna Fox is Associate Professor in mental health recovery at Anglia Ruskin University. I identify as a mental health service user and write a lot from a first-person perspective of recovery. Research interests include a commitment to ensuring family carers are knowledgeable about mental health and understand recovery. I have also researched the experiences of academics disclosing their mental health diagnoses within UK HEIs, shared decision-making in mental health medication management, and the impact of service user involvement in the social work programmes.
Rob Sayce
LEAP member
I joined the TYPPEX Involvement Group in September of 2023, utilizing my experience to help shape the way that the study and its key underlying concepts are presented to the public. More generally, I am interested in how therapeutic interventions (within the NHS and beyond) can be rendered more inclusive and appropriate for the needs of all. I feel that this is a particularly pressing issue for those whose experiences may be considered atypical, or to sit on the fringes of various diagnostic categories, and can therefore risk falling between gaps in existing service provision. Aside from the study I am an arts journalist and postgraduate student, currently focusing on issues within the ethics of psychiatric treatment and exploring how philosophical concepts – such as epistemic injustice – might help us to arrive at meaningful reform.
Annie Walsh
LEAP member
I’m Annie, I have a background in psychiatric research with my own lived experience of mental health issues. Joining the TYPPEX-LEAP in 2016/17 was my first foray into the world of lived experience involvement of many more to come, including now being the Public Involvement in Research Manager at McPin! I was particularly interested in the TYPPEX study as it perfectly matched my lived experience – being considered “too complex” for Talking Therapy services with referral back to GP specifically as a result of my unusual experiences, but not (yet) severe enough for secondary services. The TYPPEX-LEAP were instrumental in co-designing the training therapists receive during the study, and I believe if my therapist had received this training, I could have remained in, and benefitted more from Talking Therapy services.