Editorial team

Photography: Scott, Elizabeth, Emma & AlexGraphics: Mark, Susan & LizCopy: Sylvia, Angela & SarahInterview: Dean & Sallyanne

Latest News

Members of the Service User Advisory Group will be presenting their work at a national conference in Nottingham on November 14th 2012. The conference is about patient and public involvement (PPI) in research.

More details about the conference can be found here: http://www.profbriefings.co.uk/involve2012/

More details about INVOLVE can be found here: http://www.involve.org.uk/

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Welcome to our Service User Advisory Group (SUAG) newsletter

Who are we?Together, nine ‘researchers’ (researchers from the NHS and the Department of

Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, and nine ‘advisers’ (men and women with learning disabilities) meet every two months in Cambridge, to talk about health services research.

How did it all begin?In March 2010, members of the LD strand of the ‘Adult Theme’ asked members of the

five Community Learning Disability Teams to identify people who might be interested in helping them with their research. The service users were invited to an information workshop to find out more about what it might involve, the role they might play, and how they might help with health services research.

DAVID(Huntingdon)

SYLVIA(City)

MARK(City)

ELIZABETH(South)

DARREN(South)

SUSAN(East)

DEAN(Fenland)

ANGELA(Fenland)

SCOTT(East)

SARAH LIZ EMMA ISABEL ALEX SALLYANNE MARCUSLILLYMARK

Researchers

Advisers

http://www.clahrc-cp.nihr.ac.uk/ 1

What have we done so far?

We have been to Hereward Hall in March, to see what a

Community Learning Disability Team looks like and who works

there.

When we meet, we do different tasks to help

the researchers.

We have taken part in an activity to find out more about the way that service users live. The group discovered that we enjoyed taking photographs and that it was a good way to help us talk about our lives.

This is where we meet – Douglas House.

…We also have some fun - we get to know each other through activities such as

Giant Jenga!

We presented to members of the Adult Theme Advisory Group.

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The advisers have given us different insights into the realities of the lives of people with learning

disabilities - researcher

It helped me learn

different things about

myself…I’ve become

more independent since

coming to SUAG, I never

travelled alone by train

before - adviser

I think we helped that other bloke

[ researcher] upstairs- adviser

I learnt about pie charts and bar charts - adviser

We’ve built such a good friendship over

the years…it’s not good we finish in 2013

- adviser

It brings us all together, coming together to

talk…getting into small groups and talking

about things - adviser

Next time I would

think about involving

service users from

the start -

researcher

What have members of the group said about their time in SUAG?

‘Research goggles’ - a drawing by Mark Molloy, adviser member.

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I’m getting lots of questions about this [SUAG] at work, all the time - adviser