Dr Vanessa Pinfold
The McPin Foundation
Research Director
Vanessa is the PPI (Patient and Public Involvement) lead in PARTNERS2, responsible for ensuring the beneficiaries of the research – people with ongoing mental health needs, and their families – are involved throughout using their expertise to shape the design, delivery and dissemination of our findings. She was also part of the original PARTNERS research team and is a co-applicant on the current study. She co-founded the McPin Foundation in 2013 - a specialist mental health research charity. Previously, Vanessa worked for Rethink Mental Illness as Director of Research and at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London after completing a PhD from the University of Nottingham, Department of Geography.
Ruth Sayers
The McPin Foundation
Senior Peer Researcher
Ruth joined the McPin Foundation as the PARTNERS2 PPI (Patient and Public Involvement) coordinator in 2015. She worked as a lecturer in Sociology and Social Care for 13 years before medical retirement. Soon after leaving work she was supported to research the experiences of people who had lost their occupation following mental health problems by the Strategies for Living project at the Mental Health Foundation. She has since worked in mental health research with Bristol Mind, Rethink Mental illness, and within the Mental Health Research Network, as well as contributing a service user perspective to training health and care professionals, especially social workers, and commissioning.