Help with our research

NCMH is a Welsh Government funded Research Centre, led by Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor Universities. It is being funded by Health and Care Research Wales, Welsh Government. The Director of the National Centre for Mental Health is Professor Ian Jones.

You will have the opportunity to join the study once you have read through and understand the information.

We hope that learning more about mental health will lead to new ways of diagnosing, treating or even preventing mental illnesses. However, these remain long-term aims and you will not benefit directly from taking part in the study.

Only the study team will have access to your data and only they will contact you directly. All information collected during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. There are strict laws that safeguard your privacy at every stage.

In accordance with the Data Protection Act, your personal information will be kept confidential by assigning a unique study code to your data. Your name and identifying information will not be passed on to anyone.

When you agree to take part and sign up, you will be asked to provide contact details and some other information about yourself such as your age and ethnic group. You will also be asked to answer some questions about your mental and general health and lifestyle.

We will contact you every 6-12 months to ask you questions about your mental and general health and lifestyle. Sometimes we will ask for information that you haven’t given before. Sometimes we will ask you the same questions as before, so that we can see how your lifestyle and health is changing.

As well as this regular contact, the study team may contact you from time to time, to ask you to take part in new studies. You may also be contacted because you have a specific condition (for example, depression).

First you need to join the study. This involves reading this information and then consenting below. This should take about 5 minutes. Take as much time as you need to decide whether you wish to take part.

Once you have joined, you will be asked some questions. This should take about 10-15 minutes to finish. We know that we get the best data if you are able to complete these questions in one go, but if for some reason this isn’t possible, then you can save your progress and come back to the website later.

You do not have to take part in this study. If you do decide to take part, you are still free to withdraw at any time without giving a reason. If you do decide to withdraw from the study, all details you have provided will be destroyed. These will not be used further in the research.

This is a long term study that will allow us to learn a lot about the causes and triggers of mental health problems. The information that you provide will be stored for use on a long term basis (at least 15 years). To make the best use of resources, we will share data (which will be anonymous to exclude any personal details), with different groups of researchers from the NHS, universities and commercial companies.

You will not have any claim to any future commercial use of results from the study in which your data has been used.

Ethical approval has been obtained from the National Research Ethics Service and NHS (Research and Development) permission has also been obtained.

Yes, you can contact Dr Vanessa Davies on 029 2068 8340 or at daviesvj@cardiff.ac.uk. You can also write to her at:

Dr Vanessa Davies
Institute Manager
Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute
3rd Floor, Hadyn Ellis Building
Maindy Road
Cardiff
CF24 4HQ