Finding solutions for perinatal loneliness through open and participatory approaches: Research in collaboration with practitioners and marginalised communities

Research group: International Centre for Mental Health Social Research, Martin Webber & Beth Casey

Funding: National Institute for Health and Care Research, Three Schools Mental Health Fellowship

Summary

This project focuses on addressing perinatal loneliness (pregnancy to 12 months after birth) within marginalised communities. The project, initiated in November 2022, prioritises open research practices to enhance impact and collaboration. Five key approaches illustrate this commitment, including open access forms of dissemination (a project website, blog, social media and a methodology preprint), engagement and knowledge exchange with professional, community-based and researcher groups, and further outreach at public events. This case underscores the merits of open research, demonstrating that while demanding, it cultivates fruitful collaborations and refines research endeavors.

Case study

"The project is developing solutions for perinatal loneliness with a focus on underserved communities, including LGBT+, minority ethnic and neurodivergent parents, and fathers. I began in November 2022 and I have embedded the principles of open research throughout my project with an aim to maximise reach and impact, invite collaborations and improve my research strategy. I have done this in five ways.

I have a project website with an active blog where I post regular updates about progress, research activities and early findings. I advertise this blog through my project X/Twitter @pn_loneliness, through business cards and networking.
I am undertaking a rapid scoping review of interventions for perinatal loneliness, and I have been transparent by publishing my intended methodology in an open access preprint on Figshare. I could have opted to publish this in a peer-reviewed journal, but publishing quickly and open access has led to helpful engagement with the paper. Since being uploaded in March 2023, my preprint has been viewed 427 times and downloaded 39 times (January 2024 stats). I have received emails from four academics offering some suggestions for improving the research.

3.I have two research advisory groups for my study – one composed of professionals who support parents (22 members), and one composed of people with lived experience (ten members). I encourage and invite them to provide their perspectives on my research design and tools. The lived experience group is very diverse and includes people from different religions, cultures, ethnicities, sexualities, and genders.

It was very time consuming to recruit these groups and the administration involved in managing multiple meetings and 32 volunteers can sometimes be hard. I also received mentorship from the McPin Foundation (a lived-experience research organisation) on how to recruit, convene and facilitate the groups as this requires a lot of thought and skill, particularly if people have conflicting opinions. It could also be uncomfortable to open myself up to criticism and feedback, and conversations could often be challenging.

However, the discussions were fascinating and have helped me improve my study and consider aspects I had never considered. Involving a wide range of people with diverse lived experience helped me to anticipate issues and ask more sensitive questions. For example, participants suggested I include positive questions in my topic guides to improve the experience of interviewees. Dads commented that some of the questions would need to be reworded to be more inclusive of dads’ experiences, and others commented that people might be afraid to take part in the research for fear a white middle class academic might not understand their unique lived experience.

Perinatal Loneliness Research Group. I have set up a research group for academics interested in perinatal loneliness and I currently have 23 people signed up. We have met up twice and are now working on a joint-paper summarising what we know about perinatal loneliness and setting out future priorities for research. I have reached out to share my research and learn from others and I am now working on a research review with academics interested in the impacts of walking with young children.
Outreach in the community to gain feedback on findings

I have delivered two community outreach events in Sheffield during the ESRC Festival of Social Science in October and November 2023, in partnership with two local community development organisations. Over 50 members of the public and practitioners working in local services attended these events where I shared my research findings through posters and slideshows. People gave comments and feedback through mini-zine exercises (pictured) and postcards. This allowed me to gain more feedback on my early findings.

It was very fun to organise public events to share my findings! I learnt new skills such as designing posters to communicate complex academic findings to the general public. I built excellent relationships with community development organisations and I will be working with them on future events. Five professionals have since contacted me to make links to translate findings into service improvements in Sheffield.

The feedback was:

"great to hear other people's experiences at this workshop and find out what is going on in the area"

"I liked all of the ideas you showed- it is hard to choose one"

"This made me feel like I am not the only one who has had hard thoughts"

In summary, open research can be emotionally challenging and time consuming - it takes time to publicise your work, invite comments and act on them. However, the benefits are worth the effort as you improve your research approach and make links with others to further research without duplication.

Links

Naughton-Doe, Ruth; Tierney, Stephanie; Wittkowski, Anja; Webber, Martin (2023). Interventions that aim to reduce loneliness in the perinatal period: a restricted scoping review protocol.. figshare. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22226101.v2

Project website: https://solutionsforloneliness.uk/

Licensing information

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