Using research evidence to work creatively with people with lived experience of domestic abuse

Posted on August 10, 2023August 10, 2023 by capcbristol

By Dr Natalia Lewis, Senior Reseach Fellow in Primary Care and Cat Papastavrou Brooks, Research Associate, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol, and Dr Noreen Hopewell-Kelly, Research Fellow, NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre

The coMforT study

The coMforT study, funded by NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, developed and tested a trauma-specific mindfulness course for women who had experienced domestic abuse and post-traumatic stress. The study, led by Dr Natalia Lewis, worked with an advisory group of six women with lived experience of domestic abuse who engaged in planning, delivering, analysing and disseminating study findings.

Developing a theatre piece about the impact of involvement in research

Once the coMforT study finished, two of the public contributors involved in it went on to co-produce a play called ‘Hard Evidence’ with support from researchers and the director of acta, a … Read more

ATHENA in the Daily Mail – is all publicity good publicity?

Posted on June 6, 2023June 6, 2023 by capcbristol

By Lorelei Hunt, Patient and Public Involvement Representative on the ATHENA Shingles Study, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

Doctors involved in the ATHENA shingles trial were interviewed by the Daily Mail, under the headline ‘Could taking a depression pill prevent lasting agony of shingles? Scientists launch clinical trial to examine effectiveness of treating post-herpetic neuralgia with amitriptyline‘.

We need to recruit more people to take part in this important pain prevention study, so raising awareness is a good thing. But some comments made on the newspaper’s website about the medication (amitriptyline) were unhelpful or wrong.

As the patient representative on the research team, I agreed to read through all of them. There were a lot, so this took a while! Unfortunately, many people did not read past the headline and recalled their own past, sometimes unpleasant experiences of having taken … Read more

Creating a community network to tackle inequities in end-of-life care and bereavement support

Posted on January 26, 2023January 27, 2023 by capcbristol

By Lucy Selman, Associate Professor of Palliative and End of Life Care, Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group and Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol

Serious illness and bereavement affect us all, but our experiences of them are not equal. People living in the poorest areas of the UK are less likely to get the care and support they need if they become seriously ill or a loved one dies. They are also more likely to be socially isolated and lonely – which can be made even worse by serious illness or bereavement.

The Weston-super-Mare community network for health inequities is a new collaborative research project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by the University of Bristol, which aims to tackle these issues, focusing on Weston-super-Mare, a seaside town in the South West that is socioeconomically … Read more

How can involvement in research support survivors of domestic abuse?

Posted on November 25, 2021 by capcbristol

by Will Hunter, Communications Executive, National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR Bristol BRC)

Hard Evidence is a theatre piece written and performed by Shass Blake and Alison Prince. It follows the story of two friends, Jan and Christine, who both have experience of domestic abuse, but are at different points in their journey to finding support. It shines light on how involvement in research influenced their individual journeys and empowered them to start helping others.

Alison and Shass met whilst taking part in the COMforT study. COMforT developed and pilot tested a trauma-specific mindfulness course for women with experience of domestic abuse and post-traumatic stress. The study, led by Dr Natalia Lewis, worked with an advisory group of six women with lived experience of domestic abuse who supported to plan, deliver, analyse, and disseminate study findings.

The play was the brainchild of … Read more

Meet the stars of Hard Evidence – a new production about public involvement in research

Posted on October 11, 2021October 11, 2021 by capcbristol

by Will Hunter, Communications Executive, National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR Bristol BRC)

Hard Evidence, a new production developed through collaboration between public contributors to research, academics and creatives from acta community theatre in Bedminster, Bristol, highlights how getting involved with research can empower women who have experienced domestic abuse to support others in a similar situation.

Will Hunter, Communications Executive at the National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR Bristol BRC), caught up with Shass Blake and Alison Prince who wrote the script with Ingrid Jones (acta) and will perform in the production in November. They came to the project after being involved in the CoMForT study, led by Dr Natalia Lewis at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, which developed and pilot tested a trauma-specific mindfulness course for women with experience of domestic abuse and post-traumatic stress.

Thanks … Read more

Taking part in a Fun Palace – what we did and was it worth it?

Posted on November 15, 2018November 15, 2018 by capcbristol

by Dr Mairead Murphy
Senior Research Associate
and
Dr Cindy Mann
Senior Research Associate
Centre for Academic Primary Care

The Living Well Fun Palace

Fun Palaces are annual, UK-wide, science, art and culture events run within community spaces. The ethos of the annual events is that rather than simply sharing information, they should fully engage communities in arts and science and they can be run by researchers, professionals or members of the public. For researchers, they offer an opportunity for a reciprocal exchange with members of the public to share and inform research.

We were invited by the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute to take part in a ‘Living Well’ Fun Palace at Bristol Central Library, on the weekend of 6/7 October. The theme this year was ‘Patterns’ and the aim was to bring researchers and communities together in the same space to share ideas about health and wellbeing in a … Read more

Pre-grant public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE)

Posted on August 7, 2017July 26, 2018 by capcbristol

A partnership and panel event to support NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) FR15/16 applications

by Catherine Jameson
Senior Research Associate and Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement Coordinator
Centre for Academic Primary Care

Pre-grant public involvement is vital to relevant and successful research. It is considered the gold-standard approach. In practice, the issue is that before the grant is awarded, there are often no resources available to conduct high quality public and patient involvement (PPI).

With SPCR funding for pre-grant PPI supporting FR15/16 applications, we developed an event to carry out and promote early PPI at the Centre for Academic Primary Care. This served to achieve PPI for these rounds of SPCR applications, foster links between members of the public and researchers and establish early PPI as achievable and accepted culture.

The event comprised a public panel and parallel sessions of Partneropoly – an interactive game … Read more

“Send them to us”: What GPs and primary care researchers can learn from patient groups

Posted on June 22, 2017July 17, 2017 by capcbristol

by Dr Sam Merriel
NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow
Centre for Academic Primary Care

I was recently invited to address the annual general meeting of PROSPECT, a local prostate cancer support group. The brief I was given was to discuss the GP’s role in diagnosing prostate cancer and the latest research in this area; a daunting task to tackle in a room full of men with prostate cancer at various stages on their cancer journey.

I spoke of the GP’s role across the continuum of cancer, from prevention and early diagnosis through to survivorship support and palliative care. I tried to discuss some of the latest studies in the field, such as the PROMIS study and the CAP trial, in a digestible form for these men. I also mused with them about the potential role new genetic technologies will have in the future in guiding GPs in determining cancer risk … Read more

Translating research into an art performance

Posted on January 16, 2017 by capcbristol

by Dr Johanna Spiers
Senior Research Associate
Centre for Academic Primary Care

I am a qualitative health psychologist. That’s who I’ve been for about eight years.

However, before I even knew what that term meant, I was several other things: a writer, a performer, a poet. I am drawn to words, and to the stories that they form. This is why I am passionate about qualitative research. I also love performance, and believe it is a fantastic mechanism for powerfully communicating important messages about humanity.

On my arrival at the University of Bristol, I was therefore thrilled to learn that the project I would be working on with Principal Investigator Ruth Riley included a collaboration with a performance artist, who would be communicating our findings about GPs’ mental health to an audience. This performance was to happen as part of the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute’s (EBI) Feel It Festival. … Read more

A Painful Silence: bringing domestic violence into conversation

Posted on January 5, 2017January 16, 2017 by capcbristol

by Gene Feder, Professor of Primary Care
and
Lucy Potter, Academic Clinical Fellow in Social and Community Medicine
Centre for Academic Primary Care

Seek the truth, not what is comfortable. Seek the real, not the easy.
— Gerald May

Talking about domestic violence and abuse can be uncomfortable. Avoiding talking about uncomfortable subjects keeps them hidden, fails to challenge injustice and arguably colludes with perpetration. We have a responsibility to shine a light into these dark corners.

In the Centre for Academic Primary Care at the University of Bristol we conduct research on improving the health care response to domestic violence and abuse. We have measured the prevalence and impact of domestic violence in patients in general practice and sexual health services; developed and rigorously tested training for doctors and nurses in general practice to ask about DVA and link patients disclosing abuse to specialist domestic violence advocates; run programmes … Read more