For the very first time we are delighted to award project funding to eight Patient & Public Involvement and Public Engagement proposals. The competitive funding call - reviewed by public contributors, researchers and involvement and engagement professionals - was held earlier this year, with plenty of interest from researchers and trainees from across our nine departments.
Applicants were asked to propose innovative and creative ways to engage and involve the public in primary care research. In addition to the overall aims, applicants were asked to show how the project would: trial novel and creative approaches to public engagement or patient and public involvement in primary care research; raise awareness and promote primary care research; and, expand the current involvement and/ or engagement plan to reach new audiences.
Congratulations to The winners:
Healthy Community Fair: Exploring the social prescribing needs of rural communities
The applicants will organise a one-day fair on the topic of health and well-being for members of a rural community. The fair will consist of various activities and provide a forum for discussion about research on social prescribing and how it may address issues facing rural communities.
Amadea Turk, Stephanie Tierney, Kamal Mahtani, Mike Hobbs, Anne-Marie Boylan
Testing and developing models of engagement with underrepresented family groups in primary care research
This project will allow the PPI lead and researchers to apply the learning from the Reaching Out project, funded by NIHR INVOLVE and the Research Design Service, to a new setting and community that is particularly relevant to the infections theme at the School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education in Southampton. They will work with Sure Start leaders to co-create ‘spaces for engagement’ with young families to host conversations around acute childhood illnesses.
Paul Little, Merlin Wilcox, Sonia Newman, Kate Sykes, Caroline Barker, Megan Barlow-Pay
Helping women access information and support for their mental wellbeing after childbirth
This project will co-produce a video about mental wellbeing after childbirth. Video content will be informed by women's experiences, the applicants’ research findings and policy guidelines; with input from GPs and midwives. The video will aim to engage a wide audience of women to think more about their own wellbeing, to recognise if they are having difficulties and encourage them to seek help and support.
Holly Dorning, Irene Petersen, Sonia Saxena
Finding out what matters: using art to elicit research ideas from people in traditionally underserved groups
The project aims to generate research ideas and discuss the best ways to communicate research with members of black and ethnic minority groups, people affected by dementia and people living with mental health conditions. The discussions will be brought to live by creating artwork.
Anne-Marie Boylan, Gillian Richards, Shoba Dawson, Opeyemi Babatunde, Stephanie Tierney, Sophie Park, Carl Heneghan
Creative and novel approaches to engaging with children with eczema and their carers
The project consists of public engagement events in collaboration with different stakeholders to raise awareness and use creative approaches to engage with children with eczema and their carers. There will be engagement through storytelling and artwork to encourage sharing and record significant moments in the discussions.
Shoba Dawson, Matthew Ridd, Eileen Sutton, Amanda Roberts
Increasing ethnic diversity in research into communication in primary care
The applicants will work with the Bristol and Avon Chinese Women’s Group, Bristol Black Carers and BrisDoc clinicians to identify the barriers and facilitators to research participation in Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, and the factors affecting clinician-patient communication in BAME communities.
Jemima Dooley, Shoba Dawson, Rosa Hui, Angela Monfries, Rebecca Barnes
South West Palliative and End of Life Care Advisory Group
The applicants will conduct workshops with black and minority ethnic, socio-economically deprived and other under-represented community groups, to explore priorities for and the acceptability of palliative and end of life care research studies.
Lucy Pocock, Lucy Selman, Charlotte Chamberlain, Julie Clayton, Anndelois Chacon
Understanding self-harm in older adults
To engage with the wider public, an animated video will be produced which will describe the findings from the main applicant’s PhD study. The video will raise awareness on self-harm in older adults, particularly in primary care and the third sector and public contributors are involved in the creation of the animation.
Isabela Troya, Carolyn Chew-Graham, Carrol Rimmer, Steven Blackburn, Adele Higginbottom