Spotlight Interview- Brandon Flack DECIPHer

We chat with Brandon Flack from young people’s advisory group DECIPHer.

Can you tell us a bit about Decipher and it's vision? 

DECIPHer is a research centre based in Cardiff University that focuses on Public Health. For example, we have studies on topics such as smoking and vaping, mental health and sexual health. We specialise in developing, evaluating and implementing public health interventions across a range of areas to help improve the health and wellbeing of everyone and reduce health inequalities.  

DECIPHer believes that the research it undertakes should be done in collaboration with members of the public, rather than to or for them. Public involvement is at the heart of both the centre as a whole and all our research studies. This is where ALPHA comes in.  

Tell us about ALPHA?

ALPHA stands for Advice Leading to Public Health Advancement. We created ALPHA to give young people the opportunity to advise on what research topics we should focus on and feed into our research studies. 

The aim of the ALPHA group is to work with public health researchers in DECIPHer, providing advice on and insight into young people’s perspectives, views and experiences on public health topics and research studies that are relevant to them. This can include topics such as Nutrition, Mental Health, Smoking and Vaping, Physical Activity and many more.  ALPHA also have a role to feed into how the Centre works, this can include what are our areas of focus or how we run the Centre.  

Where are you based, how often do your hold meetings and how long are they?

We are based in the Sbarc|Spark building in Cathays, Cardiff. We host a meeting every 3 months and will sometimes have additional meetings based on the project needs of our DECIPHer researchers. Meetings usually last from 12 – 4pm.  

What age category is this group for?

 The group is for 14 – 25 year olds. But we are currently recruiting new members aged between 14-18 years old as these voices are less represented in the group currently. We would also consider 18+ too.

In what ways can being a part of ALPHA positively impact the young people themselves?

I think it is a fantastic opportunity to make yourself heard and give you the confidence to know that your opinion and feelings on a subject are valued. ALPHA provides a platform to do this. You also learn about interesting research along the way, which often leads to having a positive personal impact. For example, if you are giving advice on a project about a new mental health intervention, you would learn what that intervention consists of, helping you pick up skills along your Public Health research journey.  

Other skills young people have gained from being part of the group include presentation skills, communication skills, confidence building, and writing skills.  

What are the incentives of joining ALPHA?

We provide a whole host of incentives. Financially, we will provide a voucher for each meeting you attend, we provide lunch, and we cover any transport needs to help you get to the meeting. There are also professional incentives. Being involved with and influencing research is fantastic for your CV and will meet requirements for various skills or volunteering challenges including the Duke of Edinburgh Award or Welsh Baccalaureate. Finally, there are also personal incentives. It is a great opportunity to have your voice heard, make an impact on public health research and make some friends along the way with people who also care about the same issues you do! 

How can young people sign up?

If you don’t need any more convincing, click this link to fill in our registration form. Following this, I will arrange a meeting with you so we can get you signed up as a member! 

 If you haven’t quite made your mind up yet, you can read about ALPHA here Or you can watch an animation explaining the group here, this features the voices of young people in the group, and they do a much better job of explaining the group than me. 

 You can also ask any questions you have at decipherpublicinvolvement@cardiff.ac.uk.

What other opportunities do you have for young people across Wales?

Being a part of ALPHA can open further opportunities, and we often send these on to ALPHA members via our WhatsApp group.  Recently, ALPHA members have been judges on poster competitions for a research project, and they have become public contributors for a project where they meet with the study team each month.  

Also, I am more than happy to talk to you about your areas of interest and see if there is anything available for you to get involved with! 

Where can we find you online?

You can read about ALPHA here 

You can find ALPHA on Instagram @alpha_decipher 

But you can find out more about DECIPHer on LinkedIn and Bluesky 

And finally, What do you think young people need to go on to have mentally healthy futures? 

This is a great question! The researchers in DECIPHer are interested in evidence-based answers and the evidence to answer this question is still a work in progress. This is why we think ALPHA is so important, as members help shape how we work towards finding out what helps young people be mentally healthy in the present and future.