Living Well with Psychosis – Research and Services
The Living Well with Psychosis programme supports work that focuses on people affected by psychosis, including those living with diagnoses like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder.
We are accepting new Expressions of Interest in this programme from 24th March 2025.
Key information
Funding call: Living Well With Psychosis – Research and Services
Summary: The Living Well with Psychosis programme supports work that focuses on people affected by psychosis, including those living with diagnoses like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder.
Amount available: We have approximately £3m available. We do not expect to fund projects of less than £150,000. There is no maximum, but applicants should consider the total funding available when considering the size of their bid.
Aimed at: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London.
Key dates: The programme will be open for submissions on 24th March 2025 and the deadline for Expressions of Interest is 11am (BST) 6th June 2025.
About the funding call:
The Living Well with Psychosis programme funds initiatives and research to improve the treatment and support the recovery of people affected by psychosis. We also have a focus on work that supports families and carers, and addresses inequalities in the experiences of racialised communities with mental health services.
We will fund work that results in:
- Experimentation, pilots, and innovation in care and research
- Influencing system-wide improvements in understanding and meeting the needs of people who are affected by psychosis
In previous rounds we awarded over £6m to work that advances improvements in the experience of care for people with psychosis. We are re-opening the funding call with some adjustments to fund up to a further £3m.
We have used learning from the previous stages of the programme to update the funding call to support the most effective change. This is likely to be the last open call in this programme for South London and Maudsley and King’s College London applicants, though we may give continuation funding or further direct funding to address specific gaps.
Eligibility
Who can apply?
We will only accept applications from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Kings College London. Research projects that include work based at South London and Maudsley must show evidence at Expression of Interest stage that the appropriate teams and individuals at the Trust have bought into the work and are actively engaged in a partnership. We prefer these projects to be joint proposals with South London and Maudsley but recognise this may not be appropriate in some cases.
Projects funded in earlier rounds of the programme can apply for continuation funding and will be assessed again against the same criteria and in comparison with new submissions.
Additional mandatory eligibility requirements
- Applications must be endorsed by the appropriate senior leadership representative
- Applications should primarily benefit people affected by psychosis
- Applications should demonstrate that appropriate governance arrangements to cover safeguarding, risk management and ethical approval are in place
- Applications must not be solely focussed on extending existing activities. Proposed projects must either progress a new piece of work that can generate genuinely new learning or create a new way of delivering existing work to enhance or extend impact.
All bids must correspond with at least one of our updated 8 Areas of Interest:
- People affected by psychosis have a greater voice and influence over their own care
- Increased access to and engagement with high-quality personalised and effective therapy and medication
- Increased access to and engagement with high-quality, culturally appropriate peer and family support, information, and advice
- Address the impact of racism and discrimination on access to appropriate care at the right time
- People affected by psychosis have a better experience of crisis
- Better use of data to understand risk and target care
- Improved opportunities for employment and volunteering for people affected by psychosis
- Sustainable and measurable improvements to the physical health of people affected by psychosis
Changes to the 8 Areas of Interest
In our first round of funding we awarded three grants that focus on the intersection between cannabis and psychosis. We feel this is a sufficient proportion of the funding and want to create opportunities for other areas of interest.
We have added physical health projects in this round. Any applications in this area must be new work that goes beyond measurement of people’s current health to propose initiatives that create sustainable and measurable improvements in physical health.
Selection criteria
We will be using the following selection and evaluation criteria for all bids:
Delivery: Proposals must have a clear plan and detailed budget demonstrating what the need is and how activity responds to the need, with a strong, appropriately experienced team in place.
Inclusion: Projects must have a suitable and proportionate approach to involving people with lived experience and/or carers in their design and delivery.
Impact: Proposals must provide evidence and knowledge of the issues they are seeking to address. They must show potential to improve outcomes for people affected by psychosis. Proposals must show the project can have either systematic impact that affects a larger group of people or a disproportionate impact on a smaller group of people. This funding call is not for projects to expand existing work.
Learning: Proposals should demonstrate that the teams involved have a strong approach to monitoring, evaluation and sharing learning built into the project plan at all stages.
Application process and timeline
The programme will open for submissions on 24th March 2025 with a deadline of 6th June 2025. The process will be as follows:
Stage 1 – Book a conversation with the programme manager
Stage 2 – Get appropriate sign-off within your organisation
Stage 3 – Submit an Expression of Interest
Stage 4 – Internal and external reviews of your bid and feedback from the Maudsley Charity team
Stage 5 – Submit an application
Stage 6 – Further reviews of the bid, feedback from the Maudsley Charity team
Stage 7 – If recommended, bid approved by trustees
We expect to inform projects by the end of July of progression from Expression of Interest to the full application stage. The deadline for submission of full applications will be late September. Governance meetings where bids are approved for funding are scheduled for: October 2025, November 2025, January 2026 and March 2026.
Pre-submission engagement
- South London and Maudsley staff must have discussed their bids with the following personnel before submitting an Expression of Interest: their budget holder and the Psychosis CAG Director.
- King’s College London staff must have discussed their bids with the following personnel before submitting an Expression of Interest: Head of Department, the Grants Office and the Psychosis CAG director.
Expression of Interest form
You need to be registered on SmartSimple to apply. SmartSimple is our grant management platform. To apply, visit SmartSimple, log in and select Living Well with Psychosis.
If you need to register, visit SmartSimple, click on the ‘Register here as applicant’ button and enter your details.
You can read the questions asked in the LWWP Template EOI March 2025 Final (DOCX, 38KB) ahead of registering and applying.
Expressions of Interest must be submitted by 11am (BST) on 6th June 2025. We will not accept late submissions.
How to write a good bid
Keep your bids clear, concise and understandable for someone outside your team.
Be realistic about the number of activities being proposed within one project.
Answer all the questions fully, taking into account we are not based at South London and Maudsley or King’s College London, so need the specifics described.
Avoid jargon and acronyms as this may impact our ability to fully understand your proposal.
Include the appropriate level of overheads and consider any necessary project management costs. You can read the Maudsley Charity Overheads Policy (PDF, 163KB).
Learn more about the projects we have funded under this programme
Lead: Matthew Richardson, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, South London and Maudsley
Total funding awarded: £83,700
In the UK, the highest reported rates of psychotic disorders are among Black ethnic groups. In the boroughs served by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, while Black men with psychosis are over-represented on psychiatric inpatient wards, they are under-represented in accessing psychological therapy sessions in community mental health services.
This project seeks to collaborate with these service users to understand why and how the service could change its approach to better meet their needs and provide more preventative support. The project is part of broader programme to develop an anti-racist community psychosis pathway, and it will use reflective spaces for therapists to confront how discrimination impacts service users.
Lead: Marta Di Forti, Clinical Reader in Psychosis Studies at King’s College London
Total funding awarded: £99,116
There is a well-known link between heavy use of high-potency cannabis – or ‘skunk’ – and psychosis. Young adults with cannabis-induced psychosis are more likely to be males in their early 20s from minoritized communities, whose first contact with Mental Health services is through a compulsory admission.
We’ve funded previous phases of the Cannabis Clinic, which helps cannabis users with psychosis to reduce their use of the drug. Having proven the effectiveness of the programme, this phase of the project aims to widen access to the clinic’s online weekly peer sessions.
They bring together people with lived experience to learn from their peers in recovery. Inpatients with psychosis who use cannabis across all South London and Maudsley wards will be encouraged to participate. An online carers’ group will be established to help them support their loved one to reduce their reliance on cannabis and help their overall health and recovery.
Lead: Alan Simpson, Professor of Mental Health Nursing at King’s College London
Total funding awarded: £197,558
For some people the nature of their psychotic illness means that they cycle through periods of being well and periods of being very ill. This often leads to repeated admissions to acute mental health wards which specifically deal with people experiencing a severe, short-term mental health crisis.
This project will test whether specific ward-based activities could be developed and delivered at Bethlem, Maudsley and Lewisham hospitals to better prepare and motivate service users for life out of hospital and in recovery. A programme of meaningful activities could help people with severe mental illness to stay occupied, develop life skills, healthy behaviours and community connections.
There will be a particular emphasis on the needs of Black service users, who face additional discrimination and exclusion in their daily lives, and on the involvement of families and carers to help prepare for discharge.
Leads: Craig Morgan, Professor of Social Epidemiology, King’s College London and Dr Celestin Okoroji, Head of Research, Black Thrive
Total funding awarded: £270,331
This project will look at whether delivery of social and community interventions, alongside routine care, can break the cycle of entrenched disadvantage that worsens outcomes for people with psychosis. Service users often believe that the social aspects of their lives such as housing quality and poverty are at the root of their problems, but mental health services are not set up to help address these issues. This can lead to frustration and disengagement.
The project will test the effectiveness of providing a package of tailored support to provide important life skills to those who need them, to help people find work or housing, make and handle a budget, engage with education, strengthen family relationships and integrate into the community.
Lead: Dr Juliana Onwumere
, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Senior Lecturer – King’s College London
Total funding awarded: £106,753
This project will widen access to the innovative course ‘Caring for people with psychosis and schizophrenia’ developed by King’s College London and delivered via the Open University. As the world’s first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for these carers, MOOCs provide open access to online sessions that allow for an unlimited number of participants.
Funding will allow the course to increase frequency from once a year to three times a year and a targeted engagement campaign will allow it to reach people who are less visible in carer support services, such as young carers and carers from minoritised communities.
Lead: Dr Juliana Onwumere, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Senior Lecturer – King’s College London
Total funding awarded: £89,117
The project aims to understand the needs of Black carers, who face additional obstacles to accessing support including experiences of racism and a deep mistrust of the mental health system. It will bring together Black carers to discuss their caregiving needs, understand what kinds of education about mental health and wellbeing they need, and hear what support would benefit them. The project will also gather perceptions from staff in inpatient and community mental health settings about the obstacles to engaging with and supporting Black carers. The ultimate aim is to improve the outcomes of Black people with psychosis, by supporting and empowering their carers.