our research projects

Addressing Obesity in Stevenage, Hertfordshire: A Consultation with Young People Researchers from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration East of England (ARC EoE), along with colleagues from the University of Hertfordshire and Hertfordshire County Council...
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Project Title: Online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for family carers of people with dementia Type of Research: Primary research Background & Scientific Rationale: The problem: Recent systematic reviews led by the lead researcher (1,2) demonstrated that the pooled prevalence of...
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Project Title: Unintended effects of medications for sleep disturbance in people with dementia Type of Research: Secondary data analysis Background & Scientific Rationale: Poor sleep is common for people with dementia (PwD). It can lead to poor quality of life for them and their carers. Z...
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Project Title: Development of a service specification for deprescribing long-term opiates Type of Research: Realist review Background & Scientific Rationale: Evidence for the long-term benefits of opiates to manage chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) is limited and evidence for harm is growing.(1)...
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Project Title: Optimising digital health tools for sleep and fatigue management in NHS shift workers: potential impact on patient, staff, and organisational outcomes. Type of Research: Survey, qualitative Background & Scientific Rationale: Front-line ambulance sector staff are at elevated...
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Recognising the role of patient data in NIHR The NIHR recognises and values the role of patient data, both in underpinning and leading to improvements in research and care. Examples of types of patient data used in research include: GP records Clinical audits, for example the National Diabetes...
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Norfolk Mental Health Youth Services – extending provision to 25yrs Background Policy recommendations have often included reforming child and young people’s mental health services (CYP MH) to better reflect the needs of young people (e.g. Department of Health: Future in Mind). Programme of...
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Project title HEaLeD: Hospital Experiences of Adults with Learning Disabilities Type of research Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods Background and scientific rationale The HEALeD study uses mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to characterise the experiences of adults with learning...
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Project title: IMPRoving Outcomes for children exposed to domestic ViolencE (IMPROVE): A scoping study and evidence synthesis Type of research: Mixed Methods evidence synthesis Background & rationale: Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between adults...
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Supporting LGBTQ Young People In Care: co-devising research-led training materials for multi-professional practice. Type of research Implementation: process evaluation of co-producing research-led training materials with PPI members and stakeholders. Background & Scientific Rationale This...
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Reflections on Patient and Public Involvement in the PROMISE Project What is PROMISE? PROMISE (PROactive Management of Integrated Services and Environments) is a CLAHRC affiliated initiative within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust which aims to provide staff and service users...
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Project Title: Imaginator: A pilot study for a brief technology-based intervention to reduce self-harm in young people, harnessing mental imagery Background & Strength of Scientific Evidence: Self-harm (up to 10% of 15-16 year old in UK) has substantial personal impacts and costs on the NHS....
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Project Title: Care pathways for individuals diagnosed with Young Onset Dementia (YoD) Type of Research: Mixed methods study (Development Grant) Background: In the UK 5% of people living with dementia have been diagnosed with young onset dementia (YoD). This refers to people who are under the age...
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Frailty trajectories: understanding tipping points across care settings (DEM 12) Type of Research Mixed methods study  Context Older adults are heavy users of health and social services, but not all use all types of services. Heavy utilisation is concentrated in the frailest and those nearing...
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Impact of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI): Completing the Feedback Cycle Guidance for Researchers: Feedback 2018 Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in Research: Feedback from Researchers to PPI contributors Download the guidance here Guidance for Researchers PPI Feedback 2018 If you would...
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Project title Theoretical and practical development of a prototype school based Mental Health Screening Programme to be delivered in primary schools. (Alternative title:The ‘DEAL’ study – Developing Early identification and Access in Learning Environments) Type of research...
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Project title The Mindful Student Study Type of research The Mindful Student Study is the first randomised study of mindfulness delivered to University students in the UK, and one of the largest studies to be undertaken internationally. It therefore has the potential to be influential in the...
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Project title: How reproducible are economic decision-analytic models? A systematic review and replication study Type of research: Secondary data analysis Background & Scientific Rationale: Reproducibility refers to the degree to which others can replicate published research to confirm the...
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Project title: Are QALY gains an appropriate measure of the societal value of end-of-life care? Type of research: Societal preference elicitation Background & Scientific Rationale: Competing healthcare interventions are increasingly prioritised on the basis of relative cost-effectiveness, or...
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Background: The White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS (Department of Health 2010) sets out a vision for the National Health Service that promises to be one the most extensive reforms in its history with the role of the general practitioner (GP) is at its heart. No Health without...
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Title: Co-Design of an Integrated Diagrammatic Systems Modelling Language (iDSML) to Facilitate Effective communication and problem solving in Healthcare Systems. (The ‘DIAGRAMS’ study). Aim: The aim of this research was to design an integrated diagrammatic systems modelling language...
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Project Title Delivering person-centred outcomes in an Adult Safeguarding Service: a route towards best practice and compliance with section 14.14 of the Care Act 2014 Type of Research Mixed methods, to inform the development of policy and procedures in Adult Safeguarding Background Following a...
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Project title: Transition from Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS): users and leavers co-produce a transition preparation programme  Background: Consensus is growing that a rigid, age-based cut-off for leaving Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is not in the...
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Project title: Evaluation of Interpersonal Counselling (IPC) Pilot Hypothesis Does IPC (delivered by family support workers) lead to a reduction in depressive symptoms in adolescents with low mood? Is IPC delivered by youth workers acceptable to adolescents with low mood? Do youth workers find...
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Background Approximately half of all lifetime mental disorders emerge in the teenage years, 75% before the age of 25 [1]. In the UK, however, service structure necessitates transition from child and adolescent-centred services by age 18, a period when young people are negotiating multiple...
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Project title: Understanding PPI in older people’s research – how best to enable meaningful PPI in research with older people living in residential settings (RREACH) Type of research: Health services research incorporating systematic review and focus groups. Background & Scientific Rationale:...
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Project title: Patients and service users as research partners: what models work best to improve patient experience in long term conditions services? (PatIents as Partners to Improve long term coNditions services – PIPPIN) Type of research: Applied research For the lay summary, please click here ...
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Project title: Implementing PPI in an NHS Research Programme: Evaluating the PPI contribution to CLAHRC research implementation (IMPRESS) Type of research: Mixed methods qualitative action research Background and Scientific Rationale: Increasing and ever-wider public and policy support is now...
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Project title: How should we collect health care resource use data in trials conducted in care homes? A comparison of data collected from GP records versus care home records Type of research: Primary data analysis Background & Scientific Rationale: In an economic evaluation alongside a...
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Project title: Economic Evaluation of telehealth: Systematic Review and economic model Type of research: Systematic review & meta-analysis Background & Scientific Rationale: Treatment costs for people with long term conditions are rising, as are the number of people with these conditions....
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Project title: Economic evaluation of the EQUIP programme Type of research: Economic evaluation alongside a clinical trial Background & Scientific Rationale: It has been argued that that criminal offending is associated with a developmental delay in moral reasoning, distorted cognitions, and...
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Project title Eating and Drinking Well IN dementiA (EDWINA) Type of research Health Service Research- systematic review, qualitative research, development of tools for people with dementia Background & Scientific Rationale Increasing numbers of older adults in the UK have dementia which can...
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Project title: Health resource use measurement in clinical trials: should we measure general health services or disease-specific health service resource use? Type of research: Reanalysis of RCT data and comparison of reporting methods Background & Scientific Rationale: In economic evaluation...
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Project title: Prevention of long term social disability amongst young people with emerging signs of severe mental illness – estimating the value of further research and what data to collect in a future definitive study (Value of information analysis) Type of research: Value of information...
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Project title: Understanding risk. Type of research: Mixed methods research. Background & Strength of Evidence: Despite excellent efforts from its staff the NHS is sometimes an unsafe system, and currently suffers from an overly reactive stance to the management of safety (Health Foundation,...
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Project title: A patient safety framework to facilitate embedding higher level safety culture tools into the healthcare economy. Type of research: Qualitative using mixed methods for data gathering and (primarily) system modelling for data analysis, theory development and presentation of findings...
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Mental health training for foster carers (Close up training) The Transfer of Care at 17 (TC17) research project (CLAHRC Cambridgeshire & Peterborough in collaboration with Cambridgeshire County Council Children’s services) identified a toxic cycle wherein mental health problems fed...
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Project title: Red Flags for Autism Type of research Implementation phase of CLAHRC CP project Background & Scientific Rationale: The Autism Act (2009), the Autism Strategy (Department of Health, 2010) and the NICE Guidelines (2012) all recommend improved screening and diagnosis of autism...
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Project title: ENHANCE: Enhancing resilience and self-efficacy in the parents of children with disabilities and complex health needs Type of research: Applied Health research (Action Research Development study) Background & Scientific Rationale: It is estimated that there are around three...
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Project title: Responding to Winterbourne View: Developing the design, commissioning, and provision of specialist community-based services for adults with learning (intellectual) disabilities and mental health and/or behavioural needs. Type of research: Prospective longitudinal mixed-methods...
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Project title: ‘Peer support’ for improved social care and health of older prisoners: in search of effective, implementable and sustainable solutions for Her Majesty’s Prison Service. Type of research: Evidence synthesis, policy review, case studies and development work. Background and...
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Project title: Improving Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: An evaluation of Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) Type of research: Applied Research Background & Strength of Scientific Evidence: The Adult IAPT programme arose from a...
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Project title: Prepared to Share. Data sharing in end of life care. Type of research: Applied research and implementation Background & Rationale: Electronic Palliative Care Co-ordination Systems (EPaCCS) have been proposed as a key mechanism for improving coordination of care, enabling...
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Project title: The Cascade study (Dementia case finding) Type of research: Applied research What is this study about? When someone aged 75 or older goes into hospital unexpectedly it is government policy that, amongst the many tests they have done, there should also be an assessment of their...
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Project title: Understanding Hospital Admissions Close to the End of Life (ACE) Study Type of research: Applied research Background & Scientific Rationale: Where patients die, and whether that place is their choice, reflects how we view and care for people at the end of life. National and...
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Project title: Research into Older people with Dementia and their carers use of Emergency ambulance Services (RODES). Type of research: Complex evaluation: development grant to progressively refine the design before embarking on a full scale intervention design and evaluation. Background &...
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Project title: Training nurses in a competency framework to support adults with epilepsy and intellectual disability: the EpAID cluster RCT. Type of research: Experimental investigation followed by a clinical trial Background: People with an intellectual (learning) disability (ID) and epilepsy...
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Project title Population Dementia Risk Reduction. Background & Scientific Rationale Maximising the potential of existing observational studies for targeted preventive interventional research is a high priority. Observational evidence from the population studies coordinated from Cambridge has...
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