Students 'take over' the BRC

The NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) invited their Youth Award winners to ‘takeover’ the BRC on Friday 23rd November.

The BRC Youth Awards are part of the IoPPN Youth Awards. The Awards aim to encourage young people (aged 15-18) from schools in the local area to stay to stay in education and develop a career in science, with a specific focus on social problems and psychological health. They began in 2013 and have been steadily increasing in number ever since.

They provide an excellent and exciting opportunity for students to gain practical experience and make valuable contacts. Each Award involves attending a placement at the relevant department for two days to learn about each subject.

During their Takeover Challenge the students ran a research engagement stall at the IoPPN canteen, raising awareness of young people’s mental health and providing information about The HYPE Project (Improving the Health of Young PeoplE).

They also conducted a podcast interview with Professor Matthew Hotopf, Director of the BRC, discussing young people and mental health, which will be available to listen to on the HYPE Project website soon.

Rounding the day off was their 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' style quiz on young people’s mental health, featuring a range of BRC clinical academics: Dr Johnny Downs, Dr Faith Matcham, Dr Anna Kolliakou and Dr Sumithra Velupillai.

Each academic was paired with a student and put through their paces via a series of multiple-choice questions, such as ‘What proportion of adult mental health conditions relate directly to adverse childhood experiences?’ (Answer: 1 in 3).

The questions were challenging, so several teams opted to use their ‘Ask the audience’ lifeline, a clever way of introducing some interactive audience participation to the event, although it wasn’t always a successful tactic!

The HYPE research team, who organised the event, said: “We all had a great day and want to thank everyone who attended. We hope the activities highlighted the complexities of young peoples’ mental health and emphasised the need for more research in this field.”

The 2019 IoPPN Awards are now open and the closing date for applications is 7 March 2019.


Tags: Events - Patient and Carer Involvement and Engagement -

By NIHR Maudsley BRC at 26 Nov 2018, 15:05 PM


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