Young Persons’ Advisory Group

Children and young people are not just small adults – they have distinct physiological, developmental, and psychological characteristics and deserve the same access to high quality, evidence-based (from paediatric studies) health care as adults. To ensure that child health clinical research across Ireland is driven by the voice of children and young people, this YPAG has been established. It’s primary aim is to ensure that research is relevant, responsive, and meets the needs of the young people affected.

Our members attend short online meetings every couple weeks (4-6 weeks) and longer in person meeting on a Saturday 5/6 times a year. The in-person meetings are held in different parts of the country. We provide plenty of notice to members and help them plan how to get to meetings. These meetings are a great opportunity to meet fellow YPAG members, meet the researchers you’ll be working with and to upskill with training sessions.

The YPAG’s work differs from study to study, but below are some examples of the types of work the YPAG does:

• Work with researchers to design research projects
• Develop research questions
• Design information leaflets that are interesting for young people
• Heal researchers write grants for money for research
• Advise researchers on how best to recruit participants to their clinical trials
• Attend conferences and other meetings representing the YPAG
• Raise awareness of health research and the work of the YPAG on social media
• Attend courses and provide training to researchers and healthcare workers on how to incorporate the voice of young people in their work
• Come up with new research ideas
• Help promote the YPAG and clinical research on social media, websites, and through videos

Membership of the YPAG is an opportunity to meet new people, contribute to research, and most importantly be a chance for children and young people to have exciting new experiences!

Our YPAG is a joint, national initiative between In4kids and the Children’s Health Ireland Clinical Research Centre (CHI-CRC). Both groups are funded by the Health Research Board and their goal is to support our YPAG in the design and delivery of child health research in Ireland.

The day-to-day operations and functions of the YPAG are run by our amazing facilitators Shane and Sonia!

The National YPAG are looking to work closely and collaborate with researchers, clinicians and other allied health care professionals. The group acts as a resource to any health researcher or research team (academic or clinical), who want to incorporate the voice and opinions of children and young people into their study design.

Involving children and young people in all stages of a research project or clinical trial, but particularly the design phase, leads to higher quality, more relevant research and greater study retention rates.

Our YPAG members (aged 12 -18) are a diverse group of children & young people with direct or indirect experience of living with chronic, acute or rare conditions, though some do not have any diagnosed condition but a strong interest in science and medicine. All are interested in having their voices heard by individuals, industry, and governmental bodies and making a difference in child health research.

So, if you’re a child health researcher looking for Public Patient Involvement (PPI) support with:

• Grant funding applications
• Research project proposals and design
• Clinical trial design
• Patient information leaflets
• Education and dissemination planning

Please get in touch with us today! You can click on the link below which will bring you to the YPAG support application form and one of the coordinators will be in touch with you about your project and how the YPAG could help.