Welcoming you to the Pears Maudsley Centre and into our research

Why create the King’s Maudsley Partnership?

The King’s Maudsley Partnership takes the excellent clinical care that is available in our national and specialist services and in the local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) teams, and folds this into research. We know that being research aware and active in research improves care for everyone – for children and young people, for families and the clinicians providing care.   

In children’s mental health in particular there is a great need for new discoveries that can really move the dial and help us develop new offers of care. That is the huge advantage of the King’s Maudsley Partnership, and the Pears Maudsley Centre. Here, we’re putting clinicians side by side with researchers, which will accelerate the process of translating the discoveries we make into ways of helping children and families in the real world.  

What’s unique about the Pears Maudsley Centre?  

All the technology in the Clinical Research Facility, which will be opening its doors later this year, has been chosen because it is child friendly. Each piece of equipment is designed to allow all children to participate in research.  

This is important because the techniques we use currently are great, but not always ideal for children. Think of an MRI scanner – it’s loud, requires kids to lie perfectly still for ages and can be intimidating. It’s not always great for children who are sensitive to noise, are very active or very anxious. Instead, at the new CRF we will look at the brain using a range of technologies that mostly use lightweight caps that children wear with tiny sensors in them. Children can move around whilst wearing them, and they aren’t too noisy or restrictive. These collect information on brain structure and function in a more accessible way, which allows us to include children who otherwise may not have been part of research.  

Another important part of the Pears Maudsley Centre is its location. We’re based here at Denmark Hill in the heart of South London – one of the most diverse places in the world. Being embedded within such a diverse community is important because we know that science and research can sometimes leave out certain populations. This can mean people from certain ancestral or ethnic groups, people of certain gender or sexual identities, or individuals with intellectual differences may not be fully represented in research. We want to ensure these children and young people are involved in our research. We will bring research and science to them in an engaging and accessible way.    

How can you change our understanding and care for children and young people?  

We want you to get involved! We want you to help us think of the best research questions to ask; help us find the best ways to answer these questions and then make sure our findings help improve care for all children and young people.   

You might want to be involved as a participant in research, work alongside our researchers or becoming a researcher yourself.  Look out for more details on how to get involved from the partnership soon or look at the Take Part in Research page from the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.  

What’s next for the King’s Maudsley Partnership?

I was in clinic on the day after the building opened and it was just great to be able to welcome a family into such a beautiful setting. The building tells children and families how much we value them; and gives our teams of clinicians a wonderful setting in which to work.  

Our next step is to bring our research teams into the building and open our Clinical Research Facility. Once this happens, we hope to invite all families and children to be part of research: we want a culture where research is for all.  We want children to get the best care and participate in the best research, all in the same building.  When clinicians, academics, children and families work together, we can change the future of mental health. That is what makes this partnership and centre so special. It’s exciting to think of the future we can build together.   

If you want to learn more about fNIRs and our work in this area please contact us on KMPCYP@slam.nhs.uk. Learn more about the Pears Maudsley Centre.

Learn more about Professor Philip Shaw