The Synergi Collaborative Centre is a five year national initiative, funded by Lankelly Chase, to reframe, rethink and transform the realities of ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness and multiple disadvantage. Taking a collaborative approach, the centre aims to use the principles of co-production of knowledge and a creative mix of robust research methods. The centre will work closely with commissioners, policymakers and politicians, as well as public service providers, citizens and those experiencing mental distress, to create and deliver a vision to help eradicate ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness and their fundamental causes.
The Synergi Collaborative Centre has ambitious plans. It aims to better understand and tackle ethnic inequalities in the risk and consequences of severe mental illnesses among ethnic minority people. Core to Synergi’s work will be to examine how the multiple disadvantages faced by ethnic minority people, as a result of their ‘racialised’ identities, shape these inequalities.
The increased risk of experiencing a severe mental illness is amplified by substantial additional inequalities regarding admission to psychiatric hospitals, compulsory treatment and access to psychological therapies. Evidence on these issues has been repeatedly provided over the past 30 years, yet we are still waiting to see any significant response to, or a reduction in these inequalities.
Synergi will provide a strong evidence base to inform our understanding and to enable us to engage in service reform. To achieve this, we will work in close partnership with the full range of stakeholders, gathering the in-depth perspectives of service users and the public, communities, and the agencies and clinicians providing health and social care. Especially important is bringing the expertise and understanding of those experiencing mental illnesses centre stage, to give full recognition to the hidden and ignored lived experience narratives.
Through collaboration, creativity, innovation and persistence, we intend to galvanise all efforts to enable the creation of healthier care systems, social systems and living spaces.
The Synergi Collaborative Centre Project Partners
