<!--anchor--> <!--anchor--> Research Assistant <!--anchor-->

This is a great opportunity to join a Maudsley Charity funded project focussed on stakeholder consultation activities and the development of a draft protocol for a new support intervention for carers of people with lived experience of severe mental problems from Black racially minoritised communities. The project is led by Dr Juliana Onwumere and forms an initial phase of a larger project designed to reduce inequalities in mental health care for racially and ethnically minoritised groups. The post holder will work directly with the project lead and will have a leadership role in the supporting the identification, recruitment, and engagement of stakeholders, and in leading focus groups, individual interviews and running surveys. 

The successful candidate will be highly organised with excellent time and record keeping skills, able to work well independently and as part of team, and able to use initiative and have good problem-solving skills.

The post will involve working with a range of different stakeholders including groups with lived experience of marginalisation, discrimination, and a mistrust of organisations and/or individuals.  The post holder will have excellent community engagement and communication skills that can be tailored to different groups and settings. They will be skilled in using different social media platforms and creative channels to support different aspects of the project including recruitment and dissemination.

The post holder will receive engagement and communication training to support their activities with key stakeholders. They will join active research groups focused on health inequalities and disparities and psychological interventions in psychosis at King’s.  The post will be based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN), Denmark Hill, South London. However, the role will involve undertaking work across participating services and/or organisations in the London region and will therefore involve some travel.  

This post will be offered on a fixed term contract for 13 months 

This is a full-time post

• To support in preparation and collation of documents for ethical approval  
• To actively promote and support patient and public involvement and engagement in the project.  
• To liaise with individuals, communities, organisations, via different platforms (e.g., social media), to promote the research, identify, and recruit suitable participants, and disseminate  
• To lead focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and online surveys   
• To complete data entry, and analyse data, under supervision. 
• To present information regarding the research, and prepare reports, for example, with meetings with our funders, advisory group, and other professional meetings 
• To support in curating relevant data for intervention protocol 
• To attend, actively contribute to, and record research group meetings. 
• To carry out other duties as agreed with the research team  

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Essential criteria  

1.      Degree in any life science (e.g., psychology, social science, clinical neuroscience) at least at 2.i level or higher 

2.      Experience of undertaking research/consultation activities with racially minoritised groups 

3.      Experience of undertaking qualitative studies and using qualitative software to organise and analyse data 

4.     Excellent interpersonal/team working skills and oral and written communication skills, including but not limited to:  

    a) excellent telephone manner and letter, report, and scientific writing skills,  

    b) ability to deliver information effectively through presentations 

5.      Able to produce work to deadlines, and prioritise work for self 

6.      Flexible and problem-solving approach to work 

7.      Understanding the importance of confidentiality in management of participant data, awareness of ethics & data protection systems 

8.     Able to demonstrate clear attention to detail and an organised approach to recording, storing & managing data acquired 

9.      Excellent IT skills in the following areas: 

• Word processing – document format using headings and styles, mail merge 
• Spreadsheets- producing multi-sheet tables, graphs, sorting and filtering in Excel  
• Communication software – MS Outlook 
• Survey packages  
• Use of stats packages such as SPSS  
• Internet searching 
• EndNote or other referencing software 

Desirable criteria

A substantial part of the post will involve undertaking a series of consultation activities with individuals, community groups, and organisations embedded within racially minoritised communities. The successful candidate will be a graduate psychologist with an understanding of racialised health inequalities in mental health care and key determinants.