RISE-UP Framework

Involving young people in mental health research has become common enough that its absence is now noteworthy, but common involvement is not the same as good involvement. Young people are sometimes consulted at the end of a project rather than throughout it, asked to share difficult personal experiences without adequate support, or included in ways that create the appearance of participation without genuine influence. The RISE-UP Framework was developed to address this gap: a structured set of principles for researchers and professionals to ensure that involvement of young people in mental health projects is meaningful, fair, safe, and genuinely respectful.

The key question is not only whether young people are involved, but how they are involved, supported, and protected.

The Framework

RISE-UP stands for Responsible framework for Involvement, Safeguarding and Engagement - Uplifting young People's Participation in mental health projects. It comprises seven interdependent principles, grounded in the recognition that young people should not just be asked for opinions at the end of a project, or included in a tokenistic way that satisfies a funder checklist without changing anything. Instead, the framework argues, young people's knowledge, experiences, rights, and wellbeing should be recognised throughout the research process from design to dissemination.

The framework was developed in response to a clear pattern in the literature and in practice: that involving young people is not automatically positive simply because it happens. The conditions under which involvement occurs (the support available, the clarity of the role, the degree of actual influence, the attention to emotional safety) determine whether it is a genuinely valuable experience or an extractive one.

My Involvement

I was involved in a session discussing and reviewing the RISE-UP Framework, contributing a perspective as a young person with extensive experience of research involvement across multiple projects and organisations. [PLACEHOLDER: Additional detail on the nature of the session and any outputs to be added.]