Building research capacity in the NHS - a short secondment successfully completed

The Collaboration for Leadership and Applied Health Researchand Care, Yorkshire and Humber (CLAHRC-YH) supported a short term secondment of Occupational Therapist Ali Madden-Fitzgibbon, from the Assessment and Rehab Centre and Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust. Ali was placed with the ‘Valuing Active Life in Dementia’ (VALID) research team in Sheffield, to develop her research skills. It worked really well for all concerned – the research team gained the expertise of an experienced occupational therapist. Ali was able to pick up the requirements of the research very quickly, recruiting and seeking informed consent from people living with dementia and their supporters. Ali gained experience of working on a large, National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded study and the requirements of a multi site, randomised control trial of a complex intervention (Community Occupational Therapy in Dementia, COTiD-UK). She also networked with researchers in the University and local NHS research staff. Ali plans to use these networks and experience to support research and within her own practice and setting.

Lifestyle Matters Progress!

Gail Mountain attended the College of Occupational Therapists 38th Annual Conference and Exhibition in Brighton on 4^th and 5^th June to talk about the progress made on the LifestyleMatters project.

Whilst at the conference Gail attended a plenary session by Candace Imison, Acting Director of Policy for The King’s Fund where she was heartened to hear that the work in the RAT group mirrored what Candace was saying, particularly regarding patient activation.

Gail also attended a seminar titled ‘Residential care can no longer continue with business as usual’ which was delivered by Paul Burstow, MP and Chair of the Commission on Residential Care where delegates were asked to contribute ideas to the findings of the commission.

The conference on a whole was very interesting and valuable.

Gail and Mark head to California to visit Florence Clark and colleagues

Gail Mountain has just returned to Sheffield from a week long trip to the USA. Gail together with Mark Hawley from University of Sheffield and Gill Windle from the University of Bangor were invited to visit the University of Southern California, Los Angeles at the invitation of Professor Florence Clark. This invitation followed the successful visit to Sheffield by Dr Clark and her colleague Dr Stacey Schepens in 2012. The purpose of the US visit was to share work with the Department of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science at USC and in particular the progress made with the MRC funded Lifestyle Matters programme of research, which is modeled on the well reported Lifestyle Redesign studies led by Dr Clark for two decades. Gail and Gill gave a presentation to faculty staff on Lifestyle Matters.  Mark and Gail were also asked to talk about their research into assistive technologies and Mark was able to visit another research department in USC which specialises in innovative technology development.  

 It was fascinating to visit such a well resourced and well motivated department where there are excellent links with practice and where there is a significant group of research occupational therapists at various stages in their careers. The Lifestyle Redesign ‘incubator’, situated in the adjacent hospital where new programmes are designed and tested in practice and then, if successful delivered, was a great insight into how this intervention has been allowed to flourish. The two day visit was very beneficial and hopefully the collaboration will continue.  

Distant view of the Hollywood sign

After the two day visit Gail took a day off to visit the Los Angeles sights including the Avenue of the Stars, Hollywood and Sunset Strip before moving on to Philadelphia to take part in the annual Occupational Therapy summit of Scholars at Jefferson University.  This opportunity was also at the invitation of Dr Clark who is one of the organising committee. This conference has been introduced to enable research occupational therapists to share their work in a focused event was a great opportunity to hear about the research being conducted across the US and for Gail to present the Lifestyle Matters and NIHR funded Valuing Active Life in Dementia (VALID) studies to this audience. It was a great opportunity to personally meet much quoted academics from the US and also hear about the challenges of working in this country –interesting to consider how the issues of obtaining funding for research into participation and the other interests of a small professional are global!

Prof Mountain's Second Visit to Puerto Rico

Gail Mountain recently had the privilege of visiting Puerto Rico for the second time. Gail is a mentor for Elsa Orellano - pictured on the right of the photo.  Elsa is a post-doctoral occupational therapy researcher at the University of Puerto Rico and a graduate of the Master’s Program in Post-Doctoral Research and has been conducting lifestyle research informed by the UK Lifestyle Matters and the US Lifestyle Redesign programmes.   

Also pictured is Dr Estela S. Estapé, MT, PhD, FASAHP, DHL, Director, Clinical and Translational Research Education and Career Development Programs and Dr. Lourdes E. Soto, Director of the conference organizing committee (in yellow).  

During this visit Gail was asked to speak at the 4th Multidisciplinary Conference in Clinical Research & 4th Summit of Translational Research in Health Disparities and participate in working groups to determine future research strategy. The conference theme was: Translational Teams: A Window to New Approaches and Health Improvement to Eliminate Health Disparities. She also attended a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the master’s program in post-doctoral research at the very special Convento Hotel at Old San Juan and spent time with Elsa, assisting her with the identification of priorities for her career in research.  

Dr Soto (left), Dr Estela Estapé, Professor Gail Mountain, Elsa Orellano (right)

Healthy Ageing Workshop and Exhibition held today

RAT group members Professors Gail Mountain and Arlene Astell are talking today at a Knowledge Transfer workshop "Healthy Ageing and Older People" at the Council House in Birmingham. The event is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and brings together projects  from both the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme (NDA) and Life Long Health and Wellbeing Programme (LLHW). The workshop is aimed at practitioners, health and social care professionals, policy makers, older people and anyone who has an interest in improving outcomes for people in later life. The main aims of the event are to disseminate new research findings and translate these findings into accessible messages, engage with a wide range of people on these topics and identify gaps in knowledge for any future research.

Gail will be talking about the Lifestyle Matters project, a randomised controlled trial to determine the benefit of an occupational therapy based programme for people aged 65 years and older. Arlene will be talking about the Novel Assessment of Nutrition in Ageing (NANA) project, which uses sensitively-designed technology to improve data collection and integrate information on nutrition, physical function, cognitive function and mental health which is used to help identify people who are at risk of under-nourishment to allow improved targeting of interventions.

Lessons Learned in the Lifestyle Redesign® Lab- Clinical Trials Really Do Give Us Insights on Best Practice

On Wednesday 28th November 2012 at 5:30pm, the RAT group will be hosting a lecture by Florence Clark, Professor and Associate Dean of the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California.

Florence Clark

Entitled Lessons Learned in the Lifestyle Redesign® Lab- Clinical Trials Really Do Give Us Insights on Best Practice, the presentation will highlight important lessons learned through the clinical trials conducted at the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California over the last two decades. Since 1994, the Division has conducted large-scale randomized controlled trials of the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the Lifestyle Redesign® intervention, a complex, preventive lifestyle-based occupational therapy intervention. “Lessons” to be discussed include insights into dosage, cultural adaptation, manualization, and the importance of narrative in clinical trials research.

Everyone is welcome at this free lecture, and a wine reception will follow the lecture. Please confirm your attendance with Lynne Codd via email or on 0114 222 1726 or register online.