Wellcome’s Mental Health Programme and Strategy

Wellcome’s Mental Health programme focuses on research into anxiety, depression and psychosis. We have two linked ambitions: first, to gain a greater understanding of how brain, body and environment interact in the development and resolution of these conditions. Second, to develop new and improved ways to predict, identify and intervene as early as possible, both within and beyond healthcare settings, before problems escalate into conditions that hold people back throughout their lives.

Recognising that mental health is shaped by a tangle of biological, psychological and social factors, we are going to lean on the full expertise and breadth of mental health science across the world. This includes biological science, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, neurology, the humanities, social sciences and computer science. In advancing this agenda we are committed to taking risks to advance the Mental Health field via funding, field-building, convening, influencing and thought leadership. 

A key priority for the Mental Health programme is to collaborate closely with people who have lived experience of mental health problems, to ensure we are undertaking research and designing solutions that most fit people’s needs.

We understand lived experience as a unique form of knowledge, insight, and expertise, that comes from having experience of mental health challenges. When we refer to ‘lived experience experts’ or ‘people with lived experience’ we are referring to people who identify as having experienced anxiety, depression and/or psychosis broadly defined, either in the past or currently, as that is the scope of our programme. People with lived experience do not need to have been diagnosed by professionals or have accessed formal mental health services.

Wellcome’s approach to Lived Experience

Because of our scope of work, we engage with advisers who have lived or living experiences of anxiety, depression and/or psychosis. At Wellcome, Lived Experience Advisers are not expected to share their personal stories; their contributions are not based on individual experiences but how their experiences shape their expert insight to improve and enable mental health science more widely. Generally, the lived experience advisers we hope to engage should have past experience in using their knowledge of collective, systemic issues related to living with mental health challenges in order to benefit others, improve systems, and contribute to a wide range of areas in mental health science.

We want to ensure that people with Lived Experience

• are centred within, inform and shape research systems and the mental health science community

• are embedded within all of the work that the mental health team develops or funds

• contribute to the governance, direction, decision-making and daily work of the Mental Health Programme

We are looking for people aged 18+ who are passionate about using their mental health expertise to join us as Lived Experience Advisers. We are currently only recruiting for advisors with lived experience of psychosis, as this perspective is underrepresented in our team. Although there is no upper age limit for applicants, our strategic focus is on early intervention so we are looking for people who can offer insights into the onset and early presentation of psychosis. We are particularly looking to work with those who have had little to no access to support, or who have been least likely to access support, or who live in low- and middle-income settings.

What’s involved in being a Lived Experience Adviser?

You will join our global network of experts who advise the Mental Health programme on a variety of projects, to embed Lived Experience in all we do. Key activities include:

• Informing the priorities of the Mental Health programme, to ensure we are focussing on the issues that most impact people with mental health problems

• Shaping the research and projects we fund, to ensure Lived and Living Experience involvement is foregrounded.

• Being involved in deciding what research we fund. This could include contributing to funding assessment criteria, reviewing mental health research funding applications,  being involved in making funding decisions, speaking at/planning workshops for potential grant applicants

• Being involved in developing projects to integrate Lived Experience in the field of Mental Health Science and research

• Involvement in interviewing and recruiting new Mental Health team members

• Advising on and contributing to both external and internal communications about the work of the Lived Experience team and challenges in the field

• Organizing/ contributing to seminars and panel discussions on the importance of Lived Experience in Mental Health research

• Sitting on expert advisory panels for Wellcome projects

• Reflecting on processes to improve how we work

• Evaluating the impact of our Lived Experience work

The work includes both online meetings and offline work. All work is carried out remotely.

You will be paid for your time at a minimum rate of £150 per day (7 hours). You can get involved in projects according to your own capacity, and do not need to commit to a minimum number of hours. Although the amount of work fluctuates, we usually offer our advisors around 2-3 days work each month.

Eligibility criteria

We are keen to appoint advisers who represent a range of mental health perspectives, such as different levels to which their mental health has affected their daily lives, from moderate to very disabling,  and different levels of engagement with medical interventions and institutions. We welcome applications if:

• You are aged 18+

• You self-identify as having lived experience of psychosis – current or historic.

• You have some understanding of and interest in the field of mental health research and the development of new interventions

• You have some experience of using Lived Experience expertise to inform your previous work – this could be in a range of different settings such as local community work, advocacy, policy or research.

• You are interested in Wellcome’s Mental Health Strategy

• You are you keen to share your ideas, collaborate with others, and are interested in helping us find the best way to transform mental health research

• You are able to challenge and offer suggestions for developing a variety of projects

• You are from anywhere in the world. We are particularly keen to recruit advisors from low or middle income settings.

Watch our webinar to learn more, or you can find out more about the Mental Health Programme here:

You can read more about what the Mental Health Programme is doing here: https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/mental-health

You can also read some of our blogs to learn more about what we are doing:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-wellcome-what-you-need-know-lived-experience-our-kate-martin/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-can-we-genuinely-involve-young-people-lived-mental-kate-martin/

https://wellcome.org/news/lets-talk-about-lived-experiences-mental-health-challenges

Please note that these roles are for 1 year renewable and that there will be restrictions on what  Wellcome Mental Health funding you are able to apply for during your time as an advisor and for 1 year after. You must also declare any conflicts of interest (COI) with any one you are associated with who may apply to the Mental Health Programme for funding.

We will only consider the content of your answers and your spelling and grammar will not be taken into account. If you are more comfortable responding verbally rather that via written responses, you can use the answer box to link to your responses on an external platform such as Soundcloud or Vimeo.

Diversity and Inclusion is a priority at Wellcome. We are committed to cultivating a fair and healthy environment, where everyone can be themselves and thrive. We are happy to discuss flexible working options for all roles. We work to ensure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible to everyone. This includes making adjustments for people who have a disability or long-term condition. If you would like us to make adjustments during the application process, please contact us at jobs@wellcome.org using the subject line LE REF.

Applications close 26 August 2022. We will contact you to let you know the outcome of your application from mid-September. Unfortunately we are not able to give individual feedback.