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This module is intended to equip students with an advanced understanding of the types of evidence that can inform the delivery of mental health care internationally and of the methods used to acquire this evidence. It aims to provide foundations for students to conduct research on complex interventions in mental health and to approach and to make optimal use of evidence in designing and implementing mental health care interventions. The module will cover the design of research studies and evaluation in clinical practice settings. It will cover the evaluation of simple and complex interventions and health services research, at the stages of intervention development, evaluation and scaled-up implementation.

This module will also provide an overview of policy-making structures in England and levers at national and local level to support policy-implementation. It will consider the relationship between policy and research, and how this can be optimized, from the perspectives of policy-makers and researchers, drawing on the work of the Mental Health Policy Research Unit, which is based and led from the Division of Psychiatry at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº

A series of 8 half-day classes will be accompanied by relevant Moodle materials and individual and group practice assignments.

There will be two group assignments conducted as part of this module, with students divided into three groups. The group exercises are as follows:Ìý

- Week 5: 15 minute presentation on a service improvement plan

- Week 8: 15 minute presentation on a study protocol

Module Contents

The following topics will be included:

• Contemporary mental health interventions and service models and their evidence base.
• Theoretical frameworks for mental health care evaluation: How and when to apply a range of approaches to evaluating complex interventions and mental health service delivery, including trials, natural experiments, process evaluation, implementation research, and mixed methods and qualitative designs.
• Audit, service evaluation and quality improvement in clinical practice.
• Specialist methodological sessions on the application of health economics, qualitative methods, service user involvement and implementation science to the evaluation of mental health care.
• Mental health policy: a comparative approach.

Learning Outcomes

These are the intended learning outcomes for the module:

• Students will be able to appraise papers based on a range of evaluation methods in mental health, and to present findings based on different approaches in an integrated manner.
• Students will be able to identify the implications for service management, policy and planning of research findings and to describe barriers and potential solutions to their implementation.
• Students will be able to formulate outline plans to address research questions regarding the functioning and outcomes of complex interventions using a variety of appropriately chosen methodologies.
• Students will be able to prepare short briefs for service planners and commissioners, drawing on available evidence to describe key issues for service development.