Research areas Key research themes Ageing and Dementia Read More Long Term Conditions Read More Healthy Communities Read More Workforce & Health Systems Read More Cross-cutting research projects Mental Health Hub Read More Social Care Read More

c7fa8be0-4046-4345-a82a-ce4a38e05e07 Social network facilitated engagement in people who are Homeless to address InEqualities in alcohol related Liver Disease - The SHIELD feasibility study Principle Investigator: Dr Ryan Buchanan, University of Southampton Team: Professor Salim Khakoo, University of Southampton, Dr Mark Wright, University of Southampton, Dr Yun J Kim, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. Starts: 1/4/22 Ends: 1/4/23 Aim: To develop and assess the feasibility of a social network-based intervention to engage people who are homeless and at risk of alcohol-related liver disease with Hepatology services Background: Mortality in people who are homeless (PWAH) is eight times higher than the general population and liver cirrhosis is the third commonest cause of death. PWAH infrequently access hospital based Hepatology services for assessment. Alcohol consumption is a socially perpetuated behaviour that is known to cluster within human social networks. What we did Recruitment continued from February to July 2022 of people who are homeless with high risk of alcohol dependence (AUDIT score) were identified in hostels and at a homeless day centre in Southampton. Those people were then asked to take part in tests and to refer thier drinking partners to the programme. They were given supermarket vouchers as an incentive. Those homeless people who took part, filled in a survey and took part in an interview. They also had a test on their liver and were referred to liver health services. What did we find out? Fifty six peoople took part, all were from homeless hostels. Almost 20% of the group had a new diagnosis of cirrhosis, and there was a link between people who had type 2 diabetes or lived house where alcohol was present. Homeless people with hazardous alcohol consumption are socially connected to others that drink dangerously. This programme of referral can identify undiagnosed disease, however, engagement via trusted staff may be just as effective. The study highlights the importance of working with community organisations supporting underserved populations to overcome inequalities in liver disease and manage multi-morbidity. What's next? Identifying liver disease in people experiencing homelessness is progress but… Sustaining underserved populations with liver health care services after a diagnosis is made is crucial – we have since been awarded a further NIHR research grant in investigate how to approach this problem: To find out more: Follow @liverchampions https://www.southampton.ac.uk/research/projects/nihr-liver-disease-research-partnerships-liver-champions

283829ae-0e8e-40ad-96e6-9c01fa950327 SOCIAL CARE: Local Authority Adult Social Care Recruitment and Retention research project (BCP/Dorset) Lead: Dr Andy Pulman Post Doctoral Researcher and Professor Lee-Ann Fenge Contact: apulman@bournemouth.ac.uk Background Within the Wessex region, we have been working to support the development of social care research over the past few years. In 2022, we completed a year-long study examining social care research enablers and barriers which might prevent or limit a positive research environment for practitioners ( Pulman and Fenge, 2023 ). This built the foundation for four projects across Wessex – funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Wessex – which aimed to build research partnerships across local authorities (LAs) and universities in the region. As part of these projects, separate funding was available to support research champions embedded within local authorities, to support activities such as lunch time research discussions, journal clubs and the development of practitioner focused research. To encourage buy-in from the LAs we developed research in partnership with them to respond to key priority areas. Aims The aims of our project were: •Explore local recruitment and retention issues in adult social care and adult social work •Helping to inform future workforce development activities undertaken by two local authorities (LAs) •Contributing research data to both the regional and national picture of adult social care recruitment and retention issues How did we do this? Data for our project was collected between February 2023 and October 2023 and explored local recruitment and retention issues in Adult Social Care (ASC) from the perspective of four populations of interest. We collected data from n=131 participants across the four populations of interest: •Social care practitioners - social workers, allied health professionals, unregistered social care practitioners - working in adult social care at two local authorities (LAs) •Social care staff performing exit interviews with staff working in the two local LAs •Social work students (undergraduate and postgraduate programmes) in Wessex •Service users receiving services in either LA and advocates drawn from Wessex LA contracted services es Pos Positive Outcomes • Practitioner demand to participate in this study was very high and we exceeded our initial recruitment targets. • Being able to shine a light on some of the current issues facing advocacy – a currently under-reported research area – as a part of our qualitative data collected from POI 4 was an enlightening and beneficial bonus. • Being able to involve and co-write with both the PPI collaborator and the two research champions from a local authority to produce two separate academic articles from the project was another highlight. • Reaching a national newspaper (both print and online in the Telegraph) with research findings from practitioners regarding hybridization and hotdesking was a very positive development in reaching an external audience. Practioner findings - Data on Staying Reasons for staying with LAs included: • Flexible working – place of work and hours worked • Love of the job and engaging with the service users supported • Supportive management • Supportive team • Training and CPD - via continuing professional development or an apprenticeship. A number of outputs from this project can be viewed below. We have also submitted a number of journal articles describing findings from the project data to the peer review process, which will hopefully be available later this year. Practioner Challenges Challenges to Retention highlighted include: Hybridisation and Hot desking Stress and Burnout Negative Perceptions of Social Care Student Reflections on Social Care • There is always focus on recruitment, but not on retention. • Social care is hugely underfunded but money is not the only answer –a place where people want to be. • Awareness that SW not seen as a fully sustainable career. Some already planning exit strategies before they started work - a perceived shelf life for a social work career. • Worries about excessive caseloads/increased admin burdens and bureaucracy. • Pay level was deemed inadequate for the demands of the job. • On placement students noticed issues with team churn, attrition and a lack of stability – one had 8 different managers over a 12 months. • Staff shortages – some vacancies can’t even be filled by locums. • COVID-19 had been the prompt for a lot of staff to move on. • Agency usage is an issue (for example, out of county managers). This is helping to create a ‘perfect storm’. • Risk of stress and burnout inherent in profession was noted: Ethical Dilemmas / Job related / Questioning of their decision making / Resilience / Coping strategies / Travel issues Students reflected on Cost of Linving Impacts that: • Increased numbers seeking hardship support / more working alongside study • Social work bursaries frozen since 2014 – more earning whilst learning • Some HEI staff do not appreciate hardships experienced or demands faced • Burnout - feeling stressed/lacking in energy after working full-time alongside course. • Longer term, reductions in students entering the profession have major implications for meeting rising level of vacancies in social work. • Cost of living issues an increasingly influential factor for prospective students when choosing route/retraining as mature student. Service User reflections on Social Work Relationships • Changing role - onus now on the carer more to be the lead professional though not through choice. • Biggest issue is lack of money in the system. • Money over empathy – it often feels like carers and SUs cost money. • Inertia - one participant described this feeling as : “It doesn't matter how I am, you're not going to do anything about it”. • Whole structure needs an overhaul. Social work/social care is a societal issue and priority Service User reflections on staff turnover • Previous continuity of same worker no longer exists. Rapid changeover / staffing issues causing upset for carers and SUs. • Churn obliterates previous working relationships • Depersonalisation – team rather than individual; now you don’t usually have a designated social worker. It's a group. • Less frequent contact. • Out-of-hours - service is overstretched and doesn’t cover the whole area effectively for time precious situations. Impact on Advocates · Safeguarding caseloads for advocates have increased. Crisis situations due to lack of early intervention. After discharge there is no pick-up or continuity from the community – loss of advocate, a new LA social worker or unqualified social care practitioner assigned, or the case is closed as it is classified as ‘not in crisis’. · Increased caseloads now have greater complexity. There are more Section 21A challenges – a review under a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) as SUs unable to care package in the community. · Community advocacy - which prevents crisis in a lot of cases - has been reduced as statutory work always comes first. SUs need be in receipt of an LA commissioned service or NHS secondary care before they can get issues-based advocacy. · Increased complexity causes settled cases to be visited less regularly as advocates now deal with more complex court proceedings and safeguarding issues. Increased caseloads - Social work / NHS overflow · Social work seems to be moving away from relationship-based practice to procedurally driven form-filling with advocates picking up some of this work instead. · “ Hold on, this is not actually my role” - Advocates are doing part of the social worker’s job because, for whatever reason, they are not able to. · There is a greater expectation of monitoring conditions done by the supervising body, when actually it’s not their role as an advocate, but it has become their role. · Less time for IMHA within hospitals as advocates now have little or no time to do it. Further reading – blogs: A blog for World Social Work Day (19/03/24) Further reading – reports: Recruitment and retention in adult social care Executive Summary. Bournemouth: NCCDSW, Bournemouth University. Recruitment and retention in adult social care. Bournemouth: NCCDSW, Bournemouth University. Further viewing: NIHR ARC Wessex Social Care Lunchtime Seminar – Realities of adult social care recruitment and retention in 2023 (18/01/24) Publications Full article: Advocacy in Practice: Who Advocates for the Advocates? Evolving Workplace: The Possible Impacts of Hybrid Working and Hotdesking on Retention of Social Workers | The British Journal of Social Work | Oxford Academic Full article: Impacts of Workplace Stress on the Retention of Social Workers: A Qualitative Study Full article: Struggling with studying and earning – realities of the UK's cost-of-living crisis on students on social work programmes

9381b390-9efb-4b71-9879-2371689f041c ADOPTED PROJECT: EnablExercise in Crohns: A qualitativE study to uNderstAnd the Barriers and faciLitators to physical activity and Exercise IN children and adolescents with CROHN’S disease ADOPTED PROJECT: EnablExercise in Crohns: A qualitativE study to uNderstAnd the Barriers and faciLitators to physical activity and Exercise IN children and adolescents with CROHN’S disease Principal Investigator: Dr Zoe Saynor Co Applicants : Dr Nadeem Afzal , Dr Christopher Roberts , Professor Kelly Mackintosh , Dr Danielle Lambrick , Professor James Faulkner , Mr William Freer (PPI Contributor) Partners: University of Portsmouth, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Swansea University, University of Winchester, For Crohns (charity), Guts UK (Charity) Duration : 12 Months Background: We know that people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), of which one of the main forms is Crohns, are at a high-risk of not meeting the physical activity recommendations for health, due to a combination of bowel and general physical symptoms (e.g. abdominal pain, diarrhoea and fatigue). Additionally, there are currently no physical activity and exercise guidelines for young people with IBD – making it difficult to advise what people should be doing. Researchers within our team have been monitoring the effects of COVID-19 and associated lockdowns on physical activity and mental health on a global scale, and saw negative impacts in both people with long-term conditions and in the wider population. However, there is currently no data to tell us how young people with e.g. Crohns have been impacted during this time. in our centre, we are seeing an increasing number of people with Crohns transitioning from paediatric to adult care with metabolic syndrome and we anticipate this will rise in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Objectives: Assess the barriers to, and facilitators of, physical activity and exercise participation in young people with Crohns disease. Additionally, comparing their views to their parents/guardians and clinicians. Design and Methods: The proposed research will be a qualitative cross-sectional study consisting of individual semi-structured interviews with the three participant groups (in clinic for young people; videoconference for parents/guardians and clinicians). The interview schedule will be co-developed with people living with Crohns. Information from the interview will be digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. For the young people with Crohns involved in the study, we are interested in documenting their disease activity and nutritional/growth status at the time of interview so will use the Paediatric Crohns Disease Activity Index (PCDAI) to determine remission, mild activity, or moderate-to-severe activity and growth ‘weight height and BMI’ Z-scores for this. Clinical and Scientific Impact: Physical activity is important for both mental and physical health and is particularly important in people with a long-term condition. This work will provide important understanding of the views and experiences of young people with Crohns, their parents/guardians and clinicians surrounding physical activity and exercise. The findings from this qualitative study will provide insight as to why young people with Crohns may not undertake physical activity and exercise and will help inform the design and delivery of future appropriate physical activity and exercise programmes for this population. This information would complement our ongoing research (The ACTIVE-IBD Study), and will inform future funding applications to develop, evaluate and implement educational and interventional resources to increase the physical activity and exercise undertaken by young people living with Crohns. This funding award will help expedite our journey to the end goal of improving this provision and, ultimately, the quality of lives of people with Crohns

Research Fellow < Back Laila Khawaja Research Fellow Long Term Conditions Dr. Laila Khawaja holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Southampton and is an experienced qualitative researcher with a strong background in public health, well-being, and social engagement. She has worked extensively on projects that explore the intersection of mental health, agency, and lifestyle behaviors, particularly among young people. Laila was involved in a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) project that focused on empowering young individuals to enhance their sense of agency and well-being. This work aimed to positively influence their mental health, dietary choices, and physical activity habits through participatory engagement strategies. Currently, Laila is contributing to the Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Wessex Long-Term Conditions theme, where she is actively engaged in two key projects: the SCALE project, which examines enablers and barriers of using a long term conditions-scale tool and a study on Social Prescribing for Link Workers , which investigates how healthcare professionals can better connect individuals to community-based resources to improve well-being and health outcomes. Her research interests include health inequalities, patient and public involvement in healthcare, and the role of social interventions in managing long-term conditions. Previous Next

Koren Luddington - Social Worker Autism and Neurodivergence Team - Portsmouth City Council < Back How I found my way S A L T to social worker Koren Luddington - Social Worker Autism and Neurodivergence Team - Portsmouth City Council Becoming a Social Worker was a slightly unexpected career path for me. After qualifying with a degree in Speech and Language Therapy at university, I fully intended on having a life-long career as a Speech and Language Therapist. During my training, I took a real interest in Learning Disability and Autism and got my initial post-qualification experience in this area. Being young and responsibility free, after a couple of years of working, I spontaneously decided to leave the country and explore the world for a year. Unfortunately, in this time the UK went into recession and when I returned home, there were limited opportunities arising in the NHS. Koren Luddington is a Social worker in Portsmouth At this point, the novel pilot scheme 'Step Up to Social Work' was brought to my attention. At first, I was only paying the idea lip service, as Social Work didn't really appeal to me - albeit, I knew very little about it. However, my skills and qualifications did tally with the requirements of this employment-based route into Social Work, which would also secure me a Masters degree upon completion. As I progressed through the stages of the application process, I began to find the subject varied and interesting. Through the 18 months of on-the-job training and studying, I felt more and more passionately about Social Work ideology and that this was in fact the most suitable career choice for me. I worked for 10 years in Children's Services, giving me an excellent foundation to build and hone my Social Work skills. When I saw a job advertised specialising in autism, I felt like this would be a great opportunity to return to this area of interest as well as improving my knowledge and experience of working in Adult Services. Since my initial experience of working in this area, there has been enormous progression in the understanding and approach towards Autism as a cognitive variance within the wider context of neurodivergence. I have enjoyed refreshing and updating my understanding of this shift in thinking and find it fascinating that there continues to be a tussle between whether autism should be considered via a social model or medical model framework. Listening to the lived experiences of the neuro-divergent people that I am working with, really got me thinking about many facets and themes that recurringly have impacted on these young people's lives. For example, is a diagnosis beneficial? If so, why is it needed and what support is inaccessible for those without a diagnosis? For what reason are autistic people 6 times more likely to experience mental health crisis than the general population?How well do universal services understand and accommodate the neuro-divergent needs of individuals? I found these kinds of questions sparking my curiosity and I was keen to explore whether there may be some responses to these questions. So, when the opportunity was presented to link with Portsmouth University as a visiting researcher, I was interested to find out more. Never having associated myself with 'academia', I was unsure whether my skills and knowledge would meet the necessary requirements for the role. It seemed like a completely different world from my day-to-day working experience; a world that I had perceived as being elusive and exclusive. My concerns were alleviated as I was matched with a mentor from the University, who was empathic and reassuring of my self-doubts. She made me feel as though all questions were valid and she was able to provide explanations that felt personalised and relevant to my field of work. Practically, my mentor has helped me to get set up on the University computer system, showed me how to access the library journals, search facilities and introduced me to new referencing software (which was not a 'thing' when I was last studying!) Crucially, my mentor has helped me to structure and narrow down my thought processes to identify a focus and objective for my research ideas. She has encouraged me to begin to critically analyse relevant topics and to identify and categorise themes in research. Undertaking training in realist evaluation has taught me the theoretical and structural basis that I needed to be able to consider the functionality of neurodivergent support services, within the importance of contextual systems and environments. It's inspiring to feel that researching the intricacies of service implementation can help provide much needed information; going some way to begin answering those initial stirring questions. My aim is to continue refining my ideas and learning from the wealth of research available in this area. If this could lead to working on a research project that would demonstrate an evidence base for useful and valuable support services for the neurodivergent community, then this would be hugely worthwhile progress towards improved opportunities and outcomes for autistic and neurodivergent people. Previous Next

18fd758f-b147-4294-acb1-07c88dc1baa9 PUNDIT – Predicting hospital Usage Numbers via a DIgital Twin Principal Investigator: Dr Carlos Lamas-Fernandez , Associate Professor in Business Analytics/ Management Science in Southampton Business School / Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Southampton. Team : Professor Christine Currie , School of Mathematics, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Southampton. Dr Dan Burns , Innovation Centre, Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton. Dr Chris Duckworth , Innovation Centre, Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton. Professor Michael Boniface , I nnovation Centre, Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton. Professor Peter Griffiths , School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton. Dr Mark Wright , University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. Starts: 1 April, 2024 Ends : 30 September 2024 Summary Hospitals in the UK are in crisis with high levels of occupancy. The percentage of occupancy in England during July-September was 88%, and in UHS it reached 92.2% . These levels exceed the safety threshold for hospital occupancy, which sits at around 85%. Together with difficulties to ensure a smooth patient flow across the hospital, this results in adverse effects for patients: elongated hospital stays, increasing the backlog of elective procedures, increasing delays in ambulance handovers and increased mortality. In practice, hospitals try and control high occupancy levels by certain interventions, such as dedicated discharge teams, re-scheduling or cancelling elective procedures or repurposing hospital wards. These measures, however, are reactive, i.e. when the occupancy is already reaching unsafe levels, rather than proactive, that is, when anticipating a high occupancy in the near future. Further, it is not clear whether occupancy levels have an effect on treatment and discharge times, but from frontline clinicians at UHS, there is the hypothesis that higher occupancy could make them longer (as clinicians are busier prioritising the sick over the well patients who could go home), compounding the occupancy issues. Higher occupancy also decreases likelihood of patients being in the optimal location. A related research project (PROCED) has shown early evidence that frequent ward/team changes increase delays in patient discharge. The aim of this project is to investigate the feasibility and build the foundations of a simulation model that can predict accurately future, short-term, hospital bed occupancy to inform interventions. The project will have a special focus on investigating the feasibility of a model to be tailored to use in practice as a “Digital Twin” (DT), which can anticipate hospital occupancy under different scenarios, some of which can reflect proposed interventions.

bc679d13-74ba-4311-9808-713cccad3190 ADOPTED PROJECT: DIGNIFIE Gender-seNsitive evaluatIon oF a prIson alternativE DIGNIFIE: Gender-seNsitive evaluatIon oF a prIson alternativE - (intervention is known as Hope Street) Chief Investigator: Dr Emma Plugge – University of Southampton Project Team Members: Ms Donna Gipson – Empowering People: Inspiring Change (EP:IC) , Ms Paula Harriott – Prison Reform Trust and EP:IC , Dr Kathy Kendall – University of Southampton, Professor Julie Parkes – University of Southampton, Dr Sara Morgan – University of Southampton Professor James Raftery – University of Southampton, Dr Lucy Wainwright Revolving Doors and EP:IC , Dr Donna Arrondelle - University of Southampton, Ms Jess Boxall - University of Southampton, Ms Natalie Austin - University of Southampton, Ms Naomi Gadian - University of Southampton Project Partner: Empowering People: Inspiring Change (EP:IC) Background: This evaluation seeks to determine whether women’s health and wellbeing, social and criminal justice outcomes are improved when they are placed in a community based residential facility (Hope Street) rather than being imprisoned. The Ministry of Justice’s 2018 Female Offender Strategy sets out plans to improve outcomes for women in the community and custody. It aspires to ensure that fewer women are imprisoned and recommends the move to community management of women in contact with the criminal justice system (CJS), including residential women’s centres with places for women to bring their children. It is in this context that Hope Street, the community alternative to imprisonment, has been developed in Southampton. Women in contact with the CJS are some of the most disadvantaged people in society. One third of them will have been in care as children, two thirds live with ongoing domestic abuse and most will have experienced poverty. They have lower basic skills attainment than the general population, are more likely to be unemployed and to be in insecure housing. Their health is considerably poorer than that of women in the community; for example, the standardised mortality ratio for suicide is 20 times higher in imprisoned women than in the general population. This mixed methods study comprises qualitative research, a prospective cohort study and health economic evaluation. It started in 2021 and will be completed in 2027.

DEM-COMM programme Building Capacity in Dementia Research DEM-COMM has been a successful capacity-building scheme for post-doctoral researchers working in applied dementia research. The scheme launched on October 1st, 2022, with funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Alzheimer’s Society, and will run until March 31st, 2026. The aim of DEM-COMMhas been to prepare a future cohort of researchers for the role of Chief Investigator in applied dementia research. This is an important and specialised role that carries with it the expectation that the lives of people living with (or at risk of) dementia will improve because of research. The scheme supported the development of more than 70 early to mid-career researchers working in one of the 15 Applied Research Collaborations (ARCs) across England. Read the full report Supporting the future generation of Chief Investigators in Applied Dementia Research Independent report on Mapping Dementia Research Capacity - Mapping career development opportunities in applied dementia research Dementia Festival 2025 report DEM-COMM is led by Professor Ruth Bartlett with ARC Wessex as the host and coordinating centre. In 2026 we celebrated the end of the DEM-COMM programme at an event in Southampton - below are just some of the videos and images from that day Southampton Test MP Satvir Kaur explains how important the work of the Dementia Fellows has been and how personal it is to her. Lisa Hammond from the Alzheimer's Society who part funded the Dem-Comm fellowships praises their impact on the lives of people with dementia and their carers and families. Watch the DEMCOMM showreel created to celebrate all the hard work and achievements of the NIHR Dementia Fellows DEM-COMM Research Fellows Dementia Post Doctoral Awards NIHR ARC East of England NIHR ARC East of England is using the funding to support post-doctoral career development awards combined with co-funding from our university partners (Cambridge, Hertfordshire, East Anglia, and Essex) to help promising researchers develop their skills and establish their own research projects, programmes and networks. DEM-COMM research fellows: 1. Dr Tamara Backhouse (UEA) - Optimising personal care assistance for people with advanced dementia 2. Dr Smruti Bulsari (Essex) – Researching in the area of dementia strategies. 3. Dr Julieta Camino (UEA) - Project TBC 4. Dr Megan Davies (UEA) How prehabilitation/rehabilitation can be implemented as a person-centred activity for people living in care homes, including those with dementia. 5. Dr Anna Dreyer - (Cambridge) – Social determinants in cognitive impairment and dementia 6. Dr Greg Windle - (Hertfordshire) - Investigating dementia-friendly community care in the East of England Read more NIHR ARC East Midlands DEM-COMM research fellows: 1. Dr Neil Chadborn - (Nottingham) – Access to technology and needs of people from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. 2. Dr Esther Loseto-Gerritzen - (Nottingham) – Exploring the needs of people with young onset dementia in terms of care and technology. 3. Dr Orii McDermott - (Nottingham) – Addressing unmet needs of people living with young onset dementia. Read more NIHR ARC Greater Manchester DEM-COMM research fellows: 1. Dr Emma Elliott (Manchester): Deconditioning in hospitalised patients with dementia. This involves a systematic review to examine evidence of physical activity interventions for hospitalised patients with dementia. The protocol is registered on PROSPERO here. 2. Dr Sarah Fox - (Manchester) - Everyday aesthetics and the intersection of arts and health: Everyday aesthetics and the intersection of arts and health: Involves the use of a participatory approach to develop, deliver and evaluate a tailored, multi-arts social intervention with people with dementia living at home. Read more 3. Dr Jaheeda Gangannagaripalli - (Manchester) - Keep On Keep Up (KOKU) Digital technologies for falls preventions for people with dementia: The digital exercise programme is being modified for people with dementia. This fellowship will build on this to develop an intervention modification and feasibility RCT. Read more 4. Dr Sarah Smith (Manchester): Assessing the effects of physical activity interventions on the maintenance of cognitive function in midlife to reduce the risk of cognitive decline. The results of this systematic review will be explored with Public and Community Involvement and Engagement (PCIE) representatives and relevant stakeholders. Assessment of the need for a feasibility study will then follow. The protocol can be found on PROSPERO here. NIHR ARC Kent, Surrey and Sussex DEM-COMM research fellows: 1. Dr Alessandro Bosco - (Brighton and Sussex) – Project TBC 2. Dr Georgia Bell - (Brighton and Sussex) - Loneliness and dementia 3. Dr Barbora Silarova - (Kent) - Supporting wellbeing, quality of life and access to services for those with dementia living alone or in hard-to-reach areas and their unpaid carers 4. Dr Rasa Mikelyte - (Kent) - Integration of services for seamless dementia care Sarah Polack - (Brighton and Sussex) - Supporting well-being for people with dementia in deprived coastal communities/rural populations Read more NIHR ARC North East and North Cumbria The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) new dementia-focussed post-doctoral fellowships focus on: Care and support in socially disadvantaged communities. Care for dementia and multiple long-term conditions. Social care to maintain independence and dignity. The role of technology in dementia care will cut across the work programme. DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr James Faraday - (Newcastle) - Mealtime care for people living with dementia in care homes. 2. Dr Steven Lyons (Newcastle) Investigating how music provides opportunities for residents in care homes to live healthy lives, build relationships and maintain independence and dignity. 3. Dr Marie Poole - (Newcastle) - Two core areas: 1. the role of new Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in the provision of dementia care for people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds; Dr Connor Richardson - (Newcastle) - An investigation into the effects of anti-inflammatory medication have on risk of in life dementia and pathology in a population representative cohort age 65 years and over using the CFAS population 4. 2. The role of sporting clubs as emerging providers of dementia support to engage with people from socially disadvantaged communities. 5. Dr Tamlyn Watermeyer - (Northumbria University) - Involving people with Learning Disabilities in dementia research & care through technological solutions. NIHR ARC North Thames DEM-COMM Research Fellows: Alex Tsui - (UCL) - Acute care of people living with dementia Esther Hui - (UCL) - Risk factors for dementia prevention 1. Dr Kumud Kantilal (UCL) Project TBC NIHR ARC Northwest London The ARC researchers will work collaboratively on three projects: · Development, piloting, and evaluation of community-based case-finding and support for individuals with cognitive impairment or dementia, delivered by Community Health and Wellbeing Workers (CHWWs); · CHARIOT PRO, a prospective longitudinal, biomarker and data – enriched study of cognitively healthy individuals, aiming to evaluate key biological mechanisms and identify risk in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD); and · eFINGER PRINT a population-based study for ADRD prevention, and includes piloting of innovative e-based assessments and interventions for self-led lifestyle change. DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr Roxanna Korologou-Linden (Imperial) - Project TBC. 2. Dr Sujin Kang - (Imperial) Dr Roxanna Korologou-Linden (Imperial) Cognitive Health in Ageing Register: Investigational, Observational, and Trial Studies in Dementia Research (CHARIOT): Prospective Readiness cOhort Study(PRO). Dr Pallavi Nair - (Imperial) - identification and support of individuals with dementia and mild cognitive impairment in the community setting by community health and wellbeing workers (CHWWs). See ARC NWL site NIHR ARC North West Coast The NIHR ARC North West Coast projects are underpinned by a focus on health inequalities in dementia, building on the strength of our ARC and its ongoing dementia portfolio, including at the Liverpool Dementia & Ageing Research Forum, which will act as a key outlet for disseminating the research nationally and internationally. DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr Sandra Ismail (Liverpool) - Religiosity and spirituality in risks of cognitive frailty and dementia 2. Dr Laura Prato - (Liverpool) - Dementia care navigators 3. Dr Megan Polden - (Liverpool) - Examining the impacts of singing support services for people living with dementia and their carers on well-being, quality of life, social isolation, and loneliness. 4. Dr Megan Readman - (Liverpool) - Parkinson’s disease dementia and link with hearing loss NIHR ARC Oxford and Thames Valley NIHR ARC Oxford and Thames Valley researchers are active in the development of applied health and social care research across all stages of the NHS Well Pathway for Dementia: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, community support, and palliative care. Areas include: Detailed phenotyping at pre-diagnosis and diagnosis (preventing well, diagnosing well) Mapping diagnostic trajectories and longer-term support needs (supporting well, living well, dying well) Reducing inequalities in dementia prevention and access to health and social care services (all NHS Well Pathway stages) DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr Ting Cai - (Oxford) - Exploring preventive medications for dementia: big-data based pharmacoepidemiological research 2. Dr Padraig Dixon - (Oxford) - Understanding the cost-effectiveness of drug therapies (particularly repurposed drug therapies) to prevent and treat conditions. 3. Dr Jiamin Du - (Oxford) - Early diagnosis of dementia and real-world data. 4. Joseph Kwon - (Oxford) - Whole-disease economic modelling of dementia prevention and care 5. Dr Caroline Potter - (Oxford) - Exploring the availability and effectiveness of community-based support for enabling people to maintain health and wellbeing following initial diagnosis of dementia or its precursor (MCI). 6. Dr Subhashisa Swain - (Oxford) - Biological ageing in dementia and multimorbidity trajectories and clusters. NIHR ARC South London NIHR ARC South London is building research capacity in palliative and social care for people living with dementia through two interventions: Co-designing a validated tool with family carers, to support care, decision-making and access to services. The Integrated Person-centred Outcome Scale in dementia (IPOS-Dem) tool includes assessment of symptoms, emotional, spiritual and information needs and will be integrated with telehealth. Developing interventions to support care homes in better meeting residents’ spiritual needs, particularly those living with dementia from minority cultural or faith backgrounds. The research will be informed by perspectives of care home staff, residents living with dementia, and their family and friends to increase understanding of the beliefs and spiritual needs of residents living with dementia. Guidance and policies will be developed to help care home staff support spiritual care. DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr Annabel Farnood - (KCL) - Empowering better end of life dementia care for family carers of people with dementia’ (EMBED-Care4FamilyCarers) 2. Dr Olivia Luijnenburg - (KCL) - Spirituality in residential care for people living with dementia: implementing reflective tools for care workers of people living with dementia. (SpiritDem for short) 3. Dr Lesley Williamson - (KCL) - Using routine data to understand and improve health and social care for people with dementia near the end of life NIHR ARC Wessex The NIHR ARC Wessex Ageing and Dementia theme focusses on independent living with and for older people with complex health and social care needs. DEM-COMM Research Fellows: Dr Nuno Tavares - (Portsmouth) - Exploring the self-management process of other long-term conditions in people living with Dementia Dr Catherine Murphy - (Southampton) - Dementia and continence management: Supporting homecare workers Dr Gladys Yinusa - (Bournemouth) - TOMATO: nuTritiOn and deMentia AT hOme - Watch Gladys explain - download TOMATO resources Dr Pippa Collins (Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust) - An ethnographic exploration into the work of caring for paid homecare workers NIHR ARC West DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr Katie Breheny - (Bristol) - To improve use of preference-based outcome measures in the economic evaluation of interventions for people with dementia 2. Dr Elisabeth (Lis) Grey - (Bristol) - Evaluation of a Parkinson's Treatment Hub and development of dementia interventions and evaluation tools to support people from diverse communities 3. Dr Natasha Woodstoke - (UWE) - Supporting families to adjust to a diagnosis of dementia: Adapting the LivDem intervention NIHR ARC West Midlands The ARC funding, provided by NIHR in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society, is supporting a cohort of post-doctoral health and care researchers toward independence, developing their skills to establish their own research projects, programmes and ultimately groups. NIHR ARC West Midlands DEM-COMM Research Fellows are: 1. Dr Paul Campbell - (Keele) - Social Care Practice 2. Dr Sue Molesworth - (Keele) - Dementia’s place within the developing ICS/ICB landscape/multidisciplinary approaches 3. Dr Chris Poyner - (Birmingham) - People living with Dementia and informal carer/family experience within a social care context. NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber NIHR ARC Yorkshire and Humber is examining how potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia intersect with ethnicity and sociodemographic factors (University of Bradford), and a quantitative investigation of the policy impact of interventions to target dementia risk factors across ethnic groups and by deprivation using cohort study and routinely available, linked health and care datasets. in addition a Alzheimer’s Society postdoctoral research fellow is focusing on prevention of dementia, taking into account wider sociodemographic factors. DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr Amirah Akhtar - (Bradford) - Promoting healthy lifestyles to reduce dementia risk factors in minority ethnic communities. 2. Dr Lin Gong – (Leeds) Dementia prevention and health inequalities among different ethnical groups. 3. Dr Emmanuel Nwofe (Bradford) Dementia prevention and health inequalities among different ethnical groups. NIHR ARC South West Peninsula ARC South West Peninsula have awarded fellowships to 4 early-career researchers, giving them the experience and training to help them to develop into future leaders in dementia research. DEM-COMM Research Fellows: 1. Dr Catherine Alexander - (Exeter) - IDEAL project 2. Dr Iliana Lourida - (Exeter) - TBC 3. Dr Tomasina Oh - (Plymouth) - TBC 4. Dr Hannah Wheat - (Plymouth) - D-PACT; ENLIVEN Projects Read more here

Research Fellow < Back Skaiste Linceviciute Research Fellow Long Term Conditions Skaiste Linceviciute is a Research Fellow at the ARC Wessex Mental Health Hub at the University of Southampton appointed to work on projects related to the Long-Term Conditions and Ageing and Dementia themes. Skaiste brings expertise as a qualitative researcher in areas on uncovering the challenges and unmet needs of people living with long-term physical and mental conditions as well as pursuing research on person-centered support systems. Skaiste is also the Mental Health Hub's Researcher Representative for the ARC Public Involvement Forum Wessex, working together with other contributors ensuring research meaningfully addresses community priorities and is guided by people with lived experience. Previous Next

af50ff28-5b02-41fa-bc1f-f9689464860e EnTech (Enabling Technology): Investigating the enabling and inhibiting factors to the use of internet-based support tools for caregivers of people with dementia, and how to promote engagement. ! Widget Didn’t Load Check your internet and refresh this page. If that doesn’t work, contact us.

a3233a2e-82c9-4634-a984-44c5ddb93cad ADOPTED PROJECT: MELD Developing a Multidisciplinary Ecosystem to study Lifecourse Determinants of Complex Mid-life Multimorbidity using Artificial Intelligence (MELD) Chief Investigator: Dr Simon Fraser – University of Southampton Project Team Members: Dr Nisreen Alwan – Associate Professor in Public Health, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education, University of Southampton, Professor Michael Boniface – Director of the University of Southampton IT Innovation Centre and Web Science Institute, Professor Ben MacArthur – Mathematical Sciences University of Southampton, Professor Rebecca Hoyle – Mathematical Sciences University of Southampton, Dr Sarah Crozier – Associate Professor of Statistical Epidemiology, MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Mr William Ware – Patient and Public Involvement Contributor, Mr James McMahon – Patient and Public Involvement Contributor, Dr Emilia Holland – Public Health Specialty Registrar, School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Dr Zlatko Zlatev – Senior Enterprise Fellow, Electronics & Computer Science, University of Southampton Background: As with many countries we are facing challenges related to the growing number of people living with multiple long-term health conditions like diabetes, heart disease or dementia. All the way through peoples’ lives many things influence the chances of developing such conditions. This includes some things that are hard to research - broader issues throughout life such as the environment people grew up in, their education, work, and so on. Sadly, people from more socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to develop multiple conditions at an earlier age. There is also evidence that the order of developing conditions varies considerably and influences what then happens to people. This makes understanding these broader issues and how they affect that order vital to inform when and how we should intervene to prevent conditions developing. To achieve this, we need to study large numbers of people over their whole lifetime, but such datasets do not exist. Very large health datasets collected from NHS GPs are helpful but haven’t been running long enough to track from birth to later life. They include lots of information on long term conditions but not much about broader issues. In our Development Award (called ‘MELD’) we had access to one such dataset of about 700,000 people, which we used to identify health conditions. We also accessed data from the ‘1970 British Cohort Study’ – a long-running research study called a ‘birth cohort’ Publication: Early-onset burdensome multimorbidity: an exploratory analysis of sentinel conditions, condition accrual sequence and duration of three long-term conditions using the 1970 British Cohort Study https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/10/e059587.full