The HRB is a member of the International Alliance for Mental Health Research Funders (IAMHRF), a coalition of funders who share a common goal to save lives and improve treatments and care for patients with mental health issues and their families worldwide. The IAMHRF are establishing the CMA  to help address a significant challenge facing mental health research; the lack of common measures to assess the experiences, demographics and functioning of people with mental health issues.

Decision-making in relation to healthcare, healthcare systems and health policymaking relies indelibly on the capacity to compare and synthesize research evidence. However, the use of different mental health measures by different researchers to assess the same phenomena significantly hampers opportunities for synthesis of findings, collaborations, and application of new knowledge. 

A key objective of the CMA will be to drive the adoption of shared data collection instruments that are relevant and transferable to a variety of locations and areas of mental health research. The group will advise the recently established IAMHRF Common Measures in Mental Health Science Governance Board (CMB), which is co-chaired by the National Institute of Mental Health (US) and the Wellcome Trust (UK), paying particular attention to aspects of diversity, inclusivity, and cultural and geographical appropriateness of measures to help improve the quality of research.

For an overview of the assignment and to submit an application, visit: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=zURa91YqVUSJ9TZ4wukxwaMMwaTt1mxPgsVa7xsrXWtUNVVaOFFBRUpDVk9XRk9FQUpGQUU1VzRTUS4u 

The call will close on midnight (EST) on 28 February 2021. Applications will be reviewed by the end of March 2021 and successful applicants will be informed in early April 2021. 

ENDS 

For more information contact, please contact iamhrf@grahamboeckhfoundation.org