Bristol

I’ve always felt that mental health deserves just as much attention as physical health, so seeing all the potential that DATAMIND has for improving the Iives of people with mental illness was really exciting and I wanted to be a part of that.  

I’m also known amongst my friends for feeling very strongly about data protection and privacy (it’s one of my neurodiverse interests), and because of the nature of this health initiative, there was a lot of overlap with regards what I feel is important when you are collecting, handling, storing and using data linked to the public. 

Finally, I belong to a number of marginalised and underserved groups, and wanted to have a voice. There have been many occasions in the past where I’ve been overlooked or not taken seriously, whereas the RAG seemed like an opportunity to meaningfully contribute and have impact, both on a personal level and hopefully to help others in my community have their needs considered too.

I have been attending the leadership and management meetings, alongside a couple of other RAG members. We rotate our attendance so that there is always a PPI presence (both staff and Public Contributor) when project leads get together to discuss DATAMIND as a whole and its key aims and progress so far. This helps ensure that the public are involved in the work in different ways, remains a core focus of the hub, and things from our perspective don’t get missed.  

I’m also giving feedback on the website’s development and have spoken about mental health on an MQ charity discussion panel (one of the DATAMIND partners). 

I’m super into art and design! Hence my profile photo.