A new landscaping report co-authored by Durham University researchers and the McPin Foundation highlights the critical role of subjective experience in understanding mental health and improving therapeutic interventions.
The SUNRISE project explored how research into subjective experiences of depression, anxiety and psychosis is conducted and valued globally within mental health research.
The study was led by lived experience researchers from McPin with Veenu Gupta, Ben Alderson-Day and Angela Woods from our Institute for Medical Humanities, and independent survivor researcher Alison Faulkner.
The research team concluded that learning from subjective experiences in mental health research is not an optional extra. It is central to making science that is valid, ethical and impactful.
The SUNRISE study was commissioned by Wellcome to understand why research on the subjective experience of mental distress is not more visible and integrated into mental health science.
At its heart is a series of in-depth interviews with mental health researchers exploring barriers to the study of subjective experience, and an analysis of case studies where these barriers have been productively addressed.
Dr Veenu Gupta was Assistant Professor of Lived Experience Research in our Institute for Medical Humanities at the time the research took place.
We know that learning from the subjective is central to finding ways to better support people who experience mental distress with improved interventions and care in the future. This important report highlights some of the reasons for its lack of visibility in mental health science – for example, the dominance of biomedical paradigms, inaccessible funding and publication pathways, and the challenges of integrating subjective experience research into existing scientific evidence hierarchies.
We’ve learnt a lot from the sector about what supports the study of subjective experience, and found some brilliant examples of research, teams and organisations that are innovating in this area including the influence of Mad Studies and user led movements. We hope this report provides a building block to increased multidisciplinary collaboration and recognition of the important role subjective experiences play in generating research that meaningfully improves the lives of people experiencing mental health issues.
The SUNRISE report suggests next steps for researchers and research institutions, policy makers, publishers and funders to increase engagement with the study of subjective experience across the mental health research landscape.
It recommends inclusive, novel and arts-based methods to better understand mental health issues and emphasises the need for greater diversity in who and where subjective research is undertaken, as well as the importance of giving power to communities to lead on knowledge creation regarding their own lived experience.
Our Institute for Medical Humanities is a world-leader in interdisciplinary and cross-sector health research that centres lived experience, and integrates experiential knowledge in participatory, meaningful and creative ways.
The SUNRISE report was funded by Wellcome, with additional support from our Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities.
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