MAPS - Mapping Approaches to a Programme of Survivor-led research: co-developing our vision, values and principles

HealthSociety

MAPS - Mapping Approaches to a Programme of Survivor-led research: co-developing our vision, values and principles

The MAPS project brought together five survivor-led organisations and a member of our Lived Experience Advisory Board to co-develop and map the vision and underpinning principles for a values-based survivor-led research programme.

MAPS was a partnership between the Service User Research Enterprise (SURE) and Traumascapes, and was based in the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health. It was fully survivor-led and conceptualised. The other survivor-led organisations involved were Little Ro, Survivors Voices, The Flying Child and We Are Survivors.

During MAPS, we came together in four workshops to discuss the safe involvement of survivors in research, our values for co-working, our vision for research, and the values underpinning and ethical principles of survivor research.

A survivor artist-researcher from Traumascapes attended all the workshops. They then designed and produced a physical framework and a virtal framework to capture our vision, values and principles.

The frameworks are designed to be expanded upon as we begin to conduct research that addresses survivor priorities. The frameworks are the cornerstone of a survivor-led research programme in the CSMH.

The frameworks were launched at a special event as part of an exhibition called Experts by Experience: Who Knows Best? at Science Gallery London. Traumascapes produced visual notes of this event (see below).

You can find the MAPS framework here: Survivor Research Framework