Hidalgo-Padilla Liliana, Ramirez-Meneses Daniela, Ariza-Salazar Karen, Lucchetti Santiago Cesar, Olivar Natividad, Stanislaus Sureshkumar Diliniya, Fung Catherine, Brusco Luis Ignacio, Gómez-Restrepo Carlos, Uribe-Restrepo José Miguel, Priebe Stefan, Diez-Canseco Francisco
CRONICAS Center of Excellence in Chronic Diseases, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.
Res Involv Engagem. 2025 Apr 17;11(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s40900-025-00703-5.
Involving people with lived experience in research has been increasingly recognised as a priority. This article details the development and implementation of three Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAP) and reports their evaluation of the experience. The LEAPs involved young people from Latin America with experiences of emotional distress, aimed at advising a youth mental health research programme.
Online meetings were conducted within each LEAP in Bogotá, Lima and Buenos Aires to gather feedback at different stages of the programme. Additional activities included a Joint LEAP meeting and a focus group to explore the members' experiences of LEAP participation.
During the LEAP meetings, 25 members (Bogotá n = 9, Lima n = 10, Buenos Aires n = 6) provided feedback on study data collection tools and materials, recruitment and dissemination strategies, and discussed preliminary results, which were significant in shaping study materials and processes. They valued the comfort and connection with researchers and peers during discussions about mental health topics, as well as the opportunity to inform a large-scale project with their lived experiences. However, challenges in the recruitment and engagement led to fluctuating participation, while socioeconomic and cultural barriers may have influenced access.
The implementation of the LEAPs is an example of involving young Latin Americans with experiences of emotional distress in research. Future efforts should focus on overcoming structural limitations and fostering equitable collaboration, emphasising the need for youth perspectives in mental health research, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
让有实际生活经历的人参与研究日益被视为一项优先事项。本文详细介绍了三个生活经历咨询小组（LEAP）的发展和实施情况，并报告了他们对该经历的评估。LEAP小组吸纳了来自拉丁美洲有情绪困扰经历的年轻人，旨在为一个青少年心理健康研究项目提供建议。
在波哥大、利马和布宜诺斯艾利斯的每个LEAP小组内召开了线上会议，以在项目的不同阶段收集反馈。其他活动包括一次LEAP联合会议和一个焦点小组，以探讨成员参与LEAP的经历。
在LEAP会议期间，25名成员（波哥大9名，利马10名，布宜诺斯艾利斯6名）就研究数据收集工具和材料、招募与传播策略提供了反馈，并讨论了初步结果，这些对塑造研究材料和流程具有重要意义。他们重视在关于心理健康话题的讨论中与研究人员和同伴之间的舒适感和联系，以及有机会用自己的生活经历为一个大型项目提供信息。然而，招募和参与方面的挑战导致参与度波动，而社会经济和文化障碍可能影响了参与机会。
LEAP小组的实施是让有情绪困扰经历的拉丁美洲年轻人参与研究的一个范例。未来的努力应集中在克服结构限制和促进公平合作上，强调在心理健康研究中，特别是在低收入和中等收入国家，需要青年的观点。
