Research Forum – 13th July 2011

Research forum 13th July 2011

At the recent research forum held on Wednesday 13th July there were three presentations which generated a lot of discussion.

Martha Vahl talked about an impact evaluation of the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) which is a means to engage with local BME (black and minority ethnic) communities in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire on dealing with mental health issues. The aims of the evaluation were to look at the success of WRAP, to engage communities, examine the impact on participants, their communities and the services and look at the future structure of support for implementation.

Jo Middlemass gave a presentation on the first phase of the ENACT project. The aims of the project are to identify the barriers and the facilitators for service users/patients accessing, using and adhering to computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBTi) for insomnia.
Preliminary results in brief included:
Service users/patients with insomnia need to feel that the on-line ‘site’ or ‘access point’ is accredited in some way to a reputable organisation and that it is safe, secure and has a degree of ‘moderation’. Service users were also happy for their information to be fed back to GP or Health professional of their choice.
Health professionals felt their involvement in the CCBTi package depended on their being able to use it as an adjunct tor other treatment advice and that they had training, trust and enthusiasm in the package.

Janice Wiseman delivered a presentation about the Primary Care Research Network East Midlands South Yorkshire (PCRN-EMSY) on behalf of Nathalie Bailey-Flitter. She described how the PCRN comprises eight local research networks across the whole of England, each led by a clinical lead and Regional Network Manager. The coordinating centre is hosted by Leicester City PCT with three local hubs across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire region. Trent Hub now has eight team members. Their role is to:

 Coordinate patient recruitment
 Employ research development and support officers
 Ensure that Service Support Costs are secured and adequately costed
 Involve clinicians who may not have previously participated in clinical research
 Undertake a training needs analysis and providing free training (much of which is available online)
 Help to identify investigator sites
 Offer support to obtain local ethical approval, R&D approval and arrange costings and contracts
 Co-ordinate multi-centre sites
 Publicise ongoing studies
 Performance manage studies within local sites

Research Café – Supporting Health Research Bids, 1.00pm, 22 June 2011

Lincoln School of Health and Social Care:  Community and Health Research Group

Research Café – Supporting Health Research Bids

22 June 2011, 1:00 to 2:00pm
Senior Common Room, 2nd Floor, Bridge House, Brayford Campus

This next Research Café will be an informal session, focussing on providing advice and guidance on writing health research bids. It is open to all and coffee/tea will be provided.

Dr Zowie Davy, Research Fellow, Health & Social Care will be presenting her ‘work in progress’ on a current research bid

Advice and guidance will also be available from:
• Jane Dyas, Senior Research Fellow, NIHR, East Midlands Research Design Service
• Raj Mehta, Medical Statistician, NIHR, East Midlands Research Design Service
• David Young, Senior Research Facilitator, University of Lincoln

If you are planning to attend, please register your attendance with
npickles@lincoln.ac.uk

International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care conference, Amsterdam 6-8 April 2011

Between the 5th and 8th April a team from the School of Health and Social Care and colleagues from the East Midlands ambulance service travelled to Amsterdam for the 16th Annual International forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare. Professor Niro Siriwardena and Fiona Togher displayed their poster “A case study approach to understand how quality improvement methods led to improvements in primary care for Insomnia” along with around 500 other posters from over 60 countries.

Niro and Fiona presenting on the REST project

Niro and Fiona presenting on the REST project

The large and varied programme of sessions on offer were based around the theme of ‘better health, safer care, lower costs’ and considered how practically as academics and health care professionals these issues could realistically be addressed.

The representation at the conference from so many different counties was excellent and enabled the delegates to gain a much better understanding of some of the issues that other countries face in improving quality of health care as well as the opportunity to learn from others about methods and techniques that they may not previously have considered.

The key note speeches were outstanding; one of the best that was given was by a lady called Kathy Torpie; a patient representative and psychologist who provided a humbling account of the patient experience in hospital following horrific injuries in a car crash. Kathy’s speech reminded the audience of why they were really at the conference in the first place: to improve patient care and experience.

The conference was thoroughly enjoyable, inspiring and generated many ideas for the attendees to mull over and I think it is fair to say that the team would very much like to attend next years conference in Paris!

Amsterdam in spring

Amsterdam in spring

Seminar – Insomnia and sleeping tablets: a European perspective – 30 March 2011

At a well-attended seminar on 30th March, academics from Universities of Ghent and Antwerp in Belgium presented at University of Lincoln.

Sibyl Anthierens (medical sociologist working at the University of Antwerp) presented on “Benzodiazepines: sleeping through the problem”. This included works on the perceptions of general practitioners, patients and nurses on initiating (or avoiding) benzodiazepines in primary care.

This was followed by Thoen Anke (general practitioner) speaking about e-learning, specifically an interactive e-module including several tools and interventions useful within a benzodiazepine-consultation to support GPs.

Prof Thierry Christiaens (general practitioner, clinical pharmacologist and professor of general practice) then described an experimental real-life training programme set up with a simulation patient to look at the effect of possible interventions/tools within a benzodiazepine consultation.

Finally, Hanne Creupelandt (clinical psychologist) spoke about interactive meetings taking place with GPs in local quality groups discussing the non- pharmacological approach of insomnia, anxiety, stress and benzodiazepine withdrawal.

Good working links have been formed with our European colleagues in Belgium particularly in the area of insomnia and benzodiazepines and we plan to build on this with future work.