Award for Patient-Centricity

Summary of work

Mental health treatments are more prescribed than ever before but currently only 50% of patients respond. Mental health research has been greatly limited by access to research volunteers. The NIHR Mental Health BioResource for Depression and Anxiety was set up as a database of contactable research volunteers but traditional recruitment methods have only identified patients in the hundreds. To ensure 20,000 valid participants were secured, a multi-stakeholder, multichannel campaign was called for. Firstly, a memorable name was created with wider-audience appeal: ‘Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression’. Strategically, the #GLADStudy campaign focused on research participants as individuals and told their stories. Case studies, charity partners and organisations were included to inspire a diverse community to sign up. As a result, the study website was overwhelmed with over 1 million visits in the first week and 24,000 valid and diverse research participants with depression and/or anxiety were recruited. The NIHR Mental Health BioResource for Depression and Anxiety now holds one of the largest banks of research volunteers in the world. There was also a visible increase in positive, public discussion about depression and anxiety, acting to reduce mental health stigma.

Judges' comments

The judges liked the different angle this project took, making it quite unusual and creating a viable asset on which to build. It had a benefit across a wide range of products.