How can Researchers engage with Parents from under-represented groups?
The team from our Perinatal Mental Health and Parenting Research Unit (PRIME-RU) facilitated a number of public engagement events with parents including fathers and people identifying as being from the LGBTQ+ community or from minoritised ethnic groups including South Asian, African and Caribbean. During these events, funded by the Greater Manchester Mental Health Strategic Research Funding for the period of September 2021-March 2022, over 50 parents were introduced to and learnt more about the research process in general.
These engagement groups were designed to be a space for shared learning and for parents to share their views about research with us including their concerns about researcher intentions and potential biases and perceived barriers in relation to engaging with a research study. Parents had the opportunity to express their views about how to engage with members of their community as well as their preferences for initial engagement and later data collection methods. Parents also shared their ideas on how to improve some of the research documents that we use (e.g., flyers, participant information sheets and consent forms) in order to facilitate those aspects of engagement further.
Using the suggestions made during these discussions, we worked with a graphic designer to create several infographics. We are excited to share these infographics with other researchers.
We would also like to thank parents from PRIME-RU’s Patient and Public Involvement group and other experts for their feedback on the infographics.
