Are you interested in participating in research projects run by our lab? This page provides information on current research opportunities.
Lived experiences of diagnostic shifts in adult mental health
Have you engaged with mental health services? Have you ever had a psychiatric diagnosis removed, replaced, or supplemented with a different diagnosis?
Consider participating in our research project!
We are a team of researchers from University College Dublin conducting a project called Lived Experience of Diagnostic Shifts in Adult Mental Health. This study has received ethical approval from the UCD Research Ethics Committee.
For people experiencing mental health difficulties, it is fairly common that their diagnosis will change over the course of their engagement with mental health services. Diagnoses can be changed for many different reasons. Despite the frequency with which this happens, no research has explored how people experience these ‘diagnostic shifts’. Our study aims to identify how diagnostic shifts affect people’s lives and any challenges they may present. We want to use this information to improve support to mental health service-users during this time of transition.
For our study, we would like to interview people who have experienced a diagnostic shift. We would like people to tell us, in their own words, how they understood the reasons for the change in their diagnosis, and any positive or negative implications it had for their lives. Interviews will take place over videochat software and all participation will be completely confidential.
By contributing to this study, you will help improve our understanding of people’s experience of diagnostic shifts and raise awareness of the challenges diagnostic changes can present. We hope to use the research to improve clinical communication of diagnostic changes and make it easier for people to adjust to these changes.
If you are aged over 18 and have previously experienced a change in their psychiatric diagnosis (i.e. had a diagnosis removed, replaced, or supplemented with a different diagnosis), we would like to invite you to take part in this study. To find out more about participating in the study, please email the researcher, Dr Cliodhna O’Connor at the details below. She will explain the study to you and answer any questions you might have.
Email: cliodhna.oconnor1@ucd.ie