EAGER project workshop at the Assertive Community Treatment Conference                Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Simon Hughes, from Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust, and Tony Jones, from developing partners, are presenting a workshop at this conference about service user researchers and the challenges for researching into assertive outreach services.

 The workshop will:

• define the concept of a service user researcher
• explain the key issues involved in conducting studies with service user researchers, and
• identify sources to support work with service users researchers

Simon and Tony will base the workshop on the experiences they gained whilst conducting research for the ‘Evaluation of the impact of the implementation of government policy on occupational therapy: using assertive outreach as an exemplar (EAGER)’ project.

This opportunity is very exciting for the Centre because it is a chance to share our work about service user researchers with an international audience. The EAGER project is supervised by Dr Katrina Bannigan and Professor Patrick Doherty, from York St John University and is funded by the College of Occupational Therapists (UK). It is part of the Centre’s ‘Occupation and working with people with psychosis living in the community’ workstream. 

Want to find out more? Visit:

• Assertive Community Treatment Association -http://www.actassociation.org/
• College of Occupational Therapists - http://www.cot.co.uk/
• developing partners - www.developingpartners.org.uk

New grant from the ISP for UKOTRF 

Why not apply?

The Institute for Social Psychiatry (ISP) is supporting the UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation (UKOTRF) with a new grant. The grant will run for 3 years and a sum of £10,000 has been allocated for use as part of UKOTRF’s Research Capacity Development Scheme. This scheme supports doctoral or early postdoctoral research for members who can demonstrate a research career pathway. The topic area of the research needs to be sympathetic to ISP’s focus which means that projects will need to focus on occupational therapy/social psychiatry, however the interpretation of the latter can be very broad and inclusive (although it should not include forensic occupational therapy).

These awards are only open to members of the British Association of Occupational Therapists, they will be advertised in Occupational Therapy News soon and the closing date will be in September, so if you are interested you need to start working on your application now.  It is advisable to do this with an academic who has a thorough grounding in research methods, if you do not currently have links with an academic who can support you, why not contact the Centre? E: RCOMH@yorksj.ac.uk

For more details about the award contact Lesley Gleaves at the College of Occupational Therapists T: 02074502323 or E: lesley.gleaves@cot.co.uk

Research clinics

The Centre will be running a quarterly research clinic to support people using or working in mental health settings with research-related activity. The research clinics may be useful to you if you need support with:

• critically appraising research related to mental health
• auditing, evaluating or researching mental health
• applying for research funding
• doing an MPhil or PhD

The research clinic is run by Dr Katrina Bannigan, an experienced researcher, who has worked in the mental health field as an occupational therapist. It will be held quarterly and you will be able to book your appointment in advance.  The next research clinics are on 1 July, 15 September and 5 December 2008. To book an appointment at a research clinic please E: RCOMH@yorksj.ac.uk and put 'research clinic' in the subject line.