Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool have teamed up to create the Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC). Our ground-breaking research facility based in Liverpool will impact directly on NHS mental health services. Our aim is simple, to improve mental healthcare for all patients and service users. We will do this by making Liverpool a world leader in better mental healthcare from research embedded in care.
We have been awarded £10.5 million from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Office for Life Sciences to create a bold and ambitious ‘learning system’ where care is continuously improved the more treatments are used, studied and refined. We bring together academic researchers, healthcare providers, service users and industry to develop and evaluate new treatments and deliver innovative services.
This will include trialling new drugs and new uses of existing drugs. It will also involve researching digital therapies such as apps and artificial intelligence for delivering virtual talking therapies and new ways to support mental wellbeing.
We aim to improve mental healthcare by shortening the time it takes to translate research into real benefits for our local communities.
We are proud to be a partner of Zero Suicide Alliance and support its work and ambitions to empower, educate, and equip individuals and organisations to support suicide awareness and prevention.
M-RIC is based in Liverpool which has one of the UK’s highest levels of social and economic disadvantage and poor mental health. Mental health service users in Liverpool live on average 20 years less than the UK average. Despite this, there has previously been little mental health research in areas like Liverpool, which need it most.
The COVID-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis have further widened health inequalities and seen a stark rise in referrals to mental health services. M-RIC is a response to these inequalities and seeks ‘parity of esteem’ between physical and mental healthcare research and innovation. Parity of esteem is the principle by which mental health must be given equal priority to physical health and it was enshrined in law by the Health and Social Care Act 2012.