Meaningful engagement is at the heart of ethical, relevant, and impactful mental health research — especially in global and low-resource settings. Drawing on guidance from the WHO, NIHR, Wellcome Trust, CAMH, and others, here are the key lessons for doing it well.
What Matters Most
- Inclusion and Equity: Everyone affected by mental health challenges should have a voice — especially people and communities often left out of research. Engagement should share power, not just collect opinions.
- Lived Experience as Expertise: People with lived experience bring vital knowledge. Involve them as partners throughout: in shaping research questions, designing studies, interpreting data, and sharing results.
- Cultural and Local Relevance: Good engagement respects local cultures, languages, and traditions. Methods should be adapted to fit the setting — not copied from elsewhere.
- Ethics and Wellbeing: Engagement must feel safe. Protect privacy, recognise potential distress, and make sure consent is truly informed and voluntary.
- Trust and Continuity: Meaningful involvement takes time. Build relationships, provide feedback, and make sure communities see how their input makes a difference.
- Shared Learning and Support: Offer training for both researchers and community partners. Engagement works best when everyone learns together.
- Clear Roles and Resources: Define responsibilities early, include engagement in project budgets, and make sure contributors are paid fairly for their time and expertise.
- Measuring Impact: Track what engagement changes — from better research design to stronger community partnerships — and share what you learn openly.
Effective Approaches
Co-production – Researchers and lived-experience experts make decisions together.
Participatory research – Communities help identify problems, act, and review outcomes.- Advisory groups – Ongoing community or peer boards guide research direction.
Peer researchers – People with lived experience work as co-investigators or facilitators.
Feedback loops – Regular updates and two-way communication keep engagement transparent.
Culturally adapted tools – Use local languages, formats, and community networks to reach more people.
The core principle:
“Nothing about us, without us.”
Engagement in global mental-health research isn’t a box to tick — it’s about partnership, respect, and shared purpose. When researchers and communities work together, the result is better science, stronger ethics, and real-world impact.
NIHR – Resource Guide for Community Engagement & Involvement (CEI) in Global Health Research (2019)
Global-health research in LMIC settings. Emphasises community engagement & involvement across research lifecycle; focuses on marginalised populations, power dynamics, “people, process and power”. Useful for mental health because it addresses inclusion in resource-limited contexts.
NIHR – Guidance for Developing CEI in Global Health Research Applications (2025)
Focuses on design of CEI strategies for global health research funding/applications. Helps embed engagement/involvement from design stage. For mental health research it supports building meaningful engagement in low- and middle-income settings.
WHO – Framework on Meaningful Engagement: Integrating Lived Experience in NCD and Mental Health Agenda (2024)
Mental-health and NCD specific, global scale. Focuses on lived-experience engagement in global policy, programmes and research. Very relevant for mental-health research engagement globally
WHO – Community Engagement: A Health Promotion Guide for UHC and SDGs (2017)
Broad health systems/health promotion engagement globally. Not mental-health specific but foundational for embedding engagement approaches in global health research. Useful as a baseline for mental-health research in global health settings.
CAMH – Best Practice Guidelines for the Engagement of People with Lived Experience in Mental Health and Substance Use Health Research (2024)
Guidance focused on engagement of people with lived experience (PWLE) in mental health/substance-use research. Though not explicitly global-LMIC, provides strong principles applicable in any setting.
GMHPN – CONSULT Guidelines: Lived Experience Engagement and Consultation for Policymakers (2024)
Global mental-health lived experience engagement guidance. Focus on policymaker-level engagement; relevant when research connects with policy or system-change in global settings.
Murphy et al. – Considerations for Supporting Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in Global Mental Health Research (2023/24)
Scholarly guidance/editorial on stakeholder engagement (policy-makers, PWLE) in global mental health research. Not a formal guidance document but contains actionable recommendations. Useful for research design in global settings.
Wellcome Trust – Embedding Lived Experience Expertise in Mental Health Research (Guidance)
Funders’ guidance (global mental health research) on embedding lived experience in mental-health research. Helps address researcher/funder roles, budgeting, governance, and global contexts.
Article – Mental Health and Lived Experience: The Value of Lived Experience Expertise in Global Mental Health (2023)
A perspective piece focusing on valuing lived experience expertise in global mental-health context. Helps understand rationale and practicalities of engagement.
WHO Regional Office for Europe – Transforming Mental Health through Lived Experience: Roadmap (2022)
Although region-specific (Europe), this Roadmap provides structured framework for integrating lived-experience practitioners into systems — useful for global research settings as transferable.