BU Research Blog

2 April 2017

New FHSS paper on migration research

international, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week saw the publication of the latest paper by Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) staff. This paper ‘Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: a review of the literature’ was co-authored by BU’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen [1]. The authors argue that the health and well-being of migrant workers from low-income countries is often neglected in travel medicine. This article uses Nepal as a case study to highlight key issues affecting this particular group of international travellers.

Migrant workers who are generally healthy appear to be similar to tourist travellers in regarding sexual health as a key issue related to being abroad. Risky sexual behaviour increases in individuals separated from their usual sexual partners, away from their own communities and families, leading to the so-called ‘situational disinhibition’. Considering the recent media coverage of deaths and injuries among migrant workers in the Middle East, it is interesting to see that their sexual health is more prevalent in the research literature. This article reminds us that travel medicine should provide more emphasis to the health and well-being of migrant workers as a highly vulnerable group of travellers with additional impact on the health of those left behind.

References;

Simkhada, P.P., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Aryal, N. (2017) Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: a review of the literature J Travel Med 24 (4): DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/tax021

31 March 2017

PPI Seminar 3: Recruitment and support in patient and public involvement

PG research, Public engagement jgavin

Recruiting and supporting participants to engage in meaningful patient and public involvement

Dr Mel Hughes & Angela Warren

Overview

Drawing on BU PIER’s experience of coordinating around 175 involvement activities each year, this interactive session will explore the what, why and how of recruiting and supporting people to be meaningfully involved in research.

Date Monday 3^rd April 2017

Time 3:00 – 4:30 pm

Location EB708, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth University

As part of the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in Research seminar series

Book your place now: https://patientandpublicinvolvement.eventbrite.co.uk

Refreshments are available and there will be plenty of time for discussion at the seminar end. Queries please contact:

Dr James Gavin
Email jgavin@bournemouth.ac.uk
Phone +44 (0)1202566303

24 March 2017

Nepal conference at BU

conferences, international, Knowledge Exchange, PG research, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

FHSS has the honour of hosting the 15th BNAC (Britain-Nepal Academic Council) Nepal Study Days on 12-13 April 2017. All presentations will focus on Nepal, its diaspora and/or the Nepali cultural world. This year’s programme includes a range of issues and studies from across different disciplines. In the past decade these study days have been at universities across the UK, including Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh.

This year several presenters of oral presentations or posters are affiliated with BU (staff, PhD students and FHSS Visiting Faculty). These include the following presentations:

Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: A review of the literature, by Padam Simkhada, Pramod Regmi, Edwin van Teijlingen & Nirmal Aryal
Assessing the need and type of continuing professional development (CPD) for nurses trained and working in Nepal, by Bibha Simkhada, Edwin van Teijlingen, Padam Simkhada, Sean Mackey, Rose Khatri, Chandra Kala Sharma & Sujan Marahatta

As well as the following posters

Reflections on THET-funded maternal mental health training in Nawalparasi, by Jillian Ireland, Andrea Lawrie, David Havelock, Padam Simkhada, Edwin van Teijlingen, Bibha Simkhada, Bhimsen Devkota, Lokendra Sherchan, Ram Chandra Silwal & Shyam K. Maharjan.
Factors affecting health facility delivery in rural Nawalparasi district of Nepal, by Preeti K Mahato, Edwin van Teijlingen, Padam Simkhada, Zoe Sheppard & Ram Chandra Silwal
Food belief practices amongst rural and urban mothers in Nepal: A qualitative overview, by Jib Acharya, Edwin van Teijlingen, Jane Murphy & Martin Hind

5 March 2017

One week: five FHSS publications

international, Knowledge Exchange, Knowledge Transfer, PG research, Publishing, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research themes, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Last week was a good week for FHSS from a publishing perspective. On the last day of February Sociological Research Online published a book review with Dr. Pramod Regmi as first author, which we highlighted in an earlier BU Research Blog (see more here!) [1]. On the same the same day we received news from the Journal of Travel Medicine (published by Oxford University press) that our latest article on research in Nepal was accepted for publication. Our paper ‘Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: A review of the literature’ addresses the health and well-being of migrant health workers and ‘brings’ this to travel medicine specialists [2].

On Thursday our article ‘Vital signs and other observations used to detect deterioration in pregnant women: an analysis of vital sign charts in consultant-led maternity units’ was accepted by the International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia published by Elsevier [3]. On Friday The Lancet published correspondence from FHSS Post-Doc. Researcher Dr. Pramod Regmi and FHSS Ph.D. student Folashade Alloh, and BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada under the title: ‘Mental health in BME groups with diabetes: an overlooked issue?’ [4]. To round off the week on Friday afternoon the editorial office of Kontakt (published by Elsevier) emailed that the editorial ‘The medical and social model of childbirth’ had been accepted for publication [5].

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

References:

Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. ‘Balanced Ethics Review: A Guide for Institutional Review Board Members’ by Whitney, Simon N., Springer, (2015) ISBN: 9783319207056 (pb) (book review), Sociological Research Online 2017; 22(1) http://www.socresonline.org.uk/22/1/reviews/3.html
Simkhada, P.P., Regmi, P.R., van Teijlingen, E., Aryal, N. Identifying the gaps in Nepalese migrant workers’ health and well-being: A review of the literature, Journal of Travel Medicine (Accepted).
Smith, G.B., Isaacs, R., Andrews, L., Wee, M.Y.K., van Teijlingen, E., Bick, D.E., Hundley, V. Vital signs and other observations used to detect deterioration in pregnant women: an analysis of vital sign charts in consultant-led maternity units, International Journal of Obstetric Anesthesia (Accepted).
Regmi, P., Alloh, F., Pant, P.R., Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2017) Mental health in BME groups with diabetes: an overlooked issue? The Lancet, 389: 904-905.
van Teijlingen, E. The medical and social model of childbirth, Kontakt (Accepted.

4 March 2017

New book review published by Dr. Pramod Regmi on research ethics

international, Publishing, Research Ethics, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

This week saw the publication of the latest issue of the internet-based journal Sociological Research Online. In this issue Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen published a book review of Balanced Ethics Review: A Guide for Institutional Review Board Members written by the American academic Simon Whitney. [1] In doing so they continue the tradition of FHSS scholars contributing to the research ethics debate. For example, Regmi and colleagues recently had a paper accepted on their insights into research in low-income countries in the journal Developing World Bioethics.[2] Whilst a 2012 FHSS-led paper stressed that researchers conducting research in low-income countries need to apply for research ethics approval to the relevant local authority, if national legislation requires one to do so.[3]

Looking better a little further back, Professor Emerita Immy Holloway wrote about the researcher who may have (potentially) conflicting roles namely those of researcher and health care professional.[4] Whilst a combination of midwifery researchers in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) highlighted the problems faced by practitioners doing research in their field of practice with perhaps the risk of blurring professional and research ethics, as balancing competing ethical concerns between protecting research participants and over-managing the ethical process can be problematic.[5-6] The latter issue of management and regulation of research ethics has recognised as getting more and more cumbersome and bureaucratic.[7-8]

Two further publications by Prof. Ashencaen Crabtree have added to the pool of FHSS publication on research ethics.[9-10] The first one, a book, addressed the problematic issue of gate-keepers in research together with the ethics of critical observation of abuse (potential or actual), as well as the ethics of advocating on behalf of research participants.[9] The second paper covered issues around working with research participants who are regarded as ‘vulnerable’ in a study into the context of care and patient/service user experiences.[10]

Whilst Prof. Parker has highlighted the benefits and dangers of using email and the Internet for social and health research.[11] An even newer research approach is the use of discussion boards as sources of data, which brings its own ethical dilemmas.[12]

In 2010-11 Prof. Parker and colleagues explored in two separate papers the contested meanings and difficulties associated with informed consent, highlighting challenges raised by an almost unquestioned acceptance of biomedical research ethics in social research and questioning whether potential ‘harm’ is different in this context.[13-14]

Prof. Hundley and colleagues discussed the ethical challenges involved in conducting a cluster randomised controlled trial, where getting informed consent can be complication.[15] Whilst it is worth reminding researchers that in issues of informed consent during pregnancy and childbirth one has to consider the potential for harm to two participants.[16]

References

Regmi, P., van Teijlingen, E. (2017) ‘Balanced Ethics Review: A Guide for Institutional Review Board Members’ by Whitney, Simon N., Springer, (2015) ISBN: 9783319207056 (pb) (book review), Sociological Research Online 22(1) http://www.socresonline.org.uk/22/1/reviews/3.html
Regmi, PR., Aryal, N., Kurmi, O., Pant, PR., van Teijlingen, E., Wasti, P.P. (forthcoming Informed consent in health research: challenges and barriers in low-and middle-income countries with specific reference to Nepal, Developing World Bioethics.
van Teijlingen E.R., Simkhada, P.P. (2012) Ethical approval in developing countries is not optional, Journal of Medical Ethics 38:428-430.
Holloway, I., Wheeler, S. (1995) Ethical Issues in Qualitative Nursing Research, Nursing Ethics 2: 223-232. http://nej.sagepub.com/content/2/3/223.full.pdf+html
Ryan, K., Brown, B., Wilkins, C., Taylor, A., Arnold, R., Angell, C., van Teijlingen, E. (2011) Which hat am I wearing today? Practicing midwives doing research, Evidence-Based Midwifery 9(1): 4-8.
van Teijlingen, E.R., Cheyne, H.L. (2004) Ethics in midwifery research, RCM Midwives Journal 7 (5): 208-10.
van Teijlingen, E. (2006) Reply to Robert Dingwall’s Plenary ‘Confronting the Anti-Democrats: The unethical Nature of Ethical Regulation in Social Science, MSo (Medical Sociology online) 1: 59-60 www.medicalsociologyonline.org/archives/issue1/pdf/reply_rob.pdf
van Teijlingen, E., Douglas, F., Torrance, N. (2008) Clinical governance and research ethics as barriers to UK low-risk population-based health research? BMC Public Health 8(396) www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-8-396.pdf
Ashencaen Crabtree, S. (2012) Rainforest Asylum: The enduring legacy of colonial psychiatric care in Malaysia, London: Whiting & Birch.
Ashencaen Crabtree, S. (2013) Research ethics approval processes and the moral enterprise of ethnography. Ethics & Social Welfare. Advance Access: DOI:10.1080/17496535.2012.703683
Bond, C.S, Ahmed, O.H., Hind, M., Thomas, B., Hewitt-Taylor, J. (2013) The Conceptual and Practical Ethical Dilemmas of Using Health Discussion Board Posts as Research Data, Journal of Medical Internet Research 15(6):e112) Web address: http://www.jmir.org/2013/6/e112/
Parker, J. (2008) Email, ethics and data collection in social work research: some reflections from a research project, Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate & Practice, 4(1): 75-83.
Hundley, V., Cheyne, H.C., Bland, J.M., Styles, M., Barnett, C.A. (2010) So you want to conduct a cluster randomised controlled trial? Lessons from a national cluster trial of early labour, Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 16: 632-638
Helmreich, R.J., Hundley, V., Norman, A., Ighedosa, J., Chow, E. (2007) Research in pregnant women: the challenges of informed consent, Nursing for Women’s Health 11(6): 576-585.
Parker, J., Penhale, B., Stanley, D., (2010). Problem or safeguard? Research ethics review in social care research and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Social Care & Neurodisability, 1(2): 22-32.
Parker, J., Penhale, B., Stanley, D. (2011) Research ethics review: social care and social science research and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, Ethics & Social Welfare, 5(4): 380-400.

27 February 2017

Public & Patient Involvement (PPI) – Seminar Series

PG research, Public engagement, Research Integritiy jgavin

Bournemouth University will be hosting a Public Involvement seminar series throughout March and April, which focusses upon the public/patients working with staff to: 1) prioritise research; 2) advise upon project methodology; 3) design recruitment campaigns; 4) develop research materials; and 5) promote the impact of findings.

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) has broad application to research beyond Health and Social Care, allowing the public actively act as participants. Direct benefits to researchers include: ensuring research quality, credibility and relevance; public accountability and insights; and enhancing research funding.

Students, staff and the public are invited to the seminar series. UGR and PGR students attending three or more seminars will be eligible to apply for an opportunity to run their own PPI advisory group with hip-replacement patients. This will be supported by ORI and the Department of Sport and Physical Activity, and has ongoing potential for conference presentation and journal article preparation.

Patient & Public Involvement (PPI) Seminar Series

Location EB708, Executive Business Centre, Lansdowne Campus

Monday 6th March, 3-4.30 pm

Why PPI is crucial to designing effective health research studies

Professor Jo Adams, Professor Musculoskeletal Health, University of Southampton

Wednesday 15th March, 3-4.30 pm

Importance of public involvement in research design: an orthopaedic case study

Lisa Gale-Andrews & Dr Zoe Sheppard, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth University

Monday 3rd April, 3-4.30 pm

Recruiting and supporting participants to engage in meaningful PPI

Dr Mel Hughes & Angela Warren, Carer and Service User Partnership, Bournemouth University

Monday 24th April, 11-12.30 pm

How can today’s patient help research tackle tomorrow’s health challenges?

Simon Denegri National Director, Patients and the Public in Research (INVOLVE)

Book your place now: https://patientandpublicinvolvement.eventbrite.co.uk

Refreshments are available and there will be plenty of time for discussion at the seminar end. Any questions please contact:

Dr James Gavin

Email jgavin@bournemouth.ac.uk

Phone +44 (0)1202566303

Phone +44 (0)1202566303

14 February 2017

British Academy Visit – reserve your place now!

Funding opportunities emilner

The British Academy is returning to BU on 8 March 2017. This is an invaluable opportunity to find out more about the international and domestic funding available through the organisation. For those of you who are not familiar with the British Academy, it is the UK’s leading independent body for the humanities and social sciences, promoting funding, knowledge exchange and providing independent advice within the humanities.

The session will last just over 1 hour (13:00-14:15) and will comprise a presentation focusing on international and domestic funding opportunities along with an overview of the British Academy, followed by a Q&A session.

Representatives of the British Academy will be available to answer any individual queries not covered in the presentation or Q&A session, and members of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office will be on hand should you wish to discuss BU’s processes for bidding to the organisation.

Places for this event can be reserved through Organisational Development here.

12 January 2017

Wanted! External Bid Writers

Funding opportunities, Grants Academy, international, Knowledge Exchange, REF Subjects, Training Emily Cieciura

As part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, Bournemouth University is expanding its pool of external bid writing expertise, through a tendering process.

If you have worked with a good bid writer or, as an external subscriber to this blog, you have written successful research funding applications, please contactus in the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office

We are particularly interested in those who can provide short courses, one-to-one support, bid writing retreats, application review or a range of these and related activities.

Examples of key funders include:

British Academy
European Commission funds including Horizon 2020
Innovate UK
Leverhulme Trust
National Institutes of Health and other US Federal funders
Research Councils
Royal Society
Wellcome Trust
etc.

We look forward to hearing from you.

30 December 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Collard on new publication

international, open access, Publishing, Training, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Today saw the publication of a new methods paper by Dr. Sarah Collard, post-doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences (FHSS) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen in the academic journal Health Prospect. This new paper addressed some of the key methodological issues associated with Internet-based Focus Groups (FGs) or the so-called Online Focus Group Discussions [1]. Traditional face-to-face FG discussions are a popular qualitative research method used a wide-range of areas, such as political sciences, marketing, health service research and sociology to name but a few disciplines. More recently, internet-based FGs have grown in popularity due to the growth of: (a) the internet, both in terms of technical capacity and number of users; and (b) the improved quality of communication software (e.g. Skype). This paper highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of conducting FGs online. Building on our experience of conducting traditional and internet-based FGs.

Dr. Sarah Collard is affiliated with BU’s Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR). Health Prospect is an Open Access journal therefore this article is freely available to any reader across the globe.

Reference:

Collard, S., van Teijlingen, E. (2016) Online focus group: New approaches to an ‘old’ research method, Health Prospect 15(3):4-7.

29 December 2016

Promoting evidence-based policy-making in Nepal

Knowledge Transfer, Public engagement, Publishing, Training Edwin van Teijlingen

We had the honour to speak to Parliamentarians (MPs) in Kathmandu today (December 29th) as part of workshop to promote evidence-based policy-making. The workshop was organised by a consortium of three UK universities: Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), Bournemouth University and the University of Sheffield. Fund the Fund supported this Advocacy Workshop with Parliamentarians and Policy Experts on HV and AIDS (Discussion series IV) in the Himalayan Hotel in Lalitpur in Kathmandu Valley. The workshop was attended by some 30 MPs from all major parties and three or four former ministers. The drive to increase evidence-based policy-making in Nepal is led by Dr. Gangalal Tuladhar MP.

Prof. Padam Simkhada from LJMU and BU Visiting Professor addressed ‘key challenges on evidence-based health care delivery in Nepal’ and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen from the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences compared selected different health-care systems in high-income countries.

26 December 2016

Call for Papers for 2017 Nepal Study Days at Bournemouth University

conferences, international, PG research Edwin van Teijlingen

Call for Papers for the 15^th Nepal Study Days

12-13 April 2017 hosted by Bournemouth University, UK

The Britain Nepal Academic Council (BNAC) invites scholars and practitioners from all disciplines to participate in the 15^th BNAC Nepal Study Days. All presentations should focus on Nepal, its diaspora and/or the Nepali cultural world. We invite presentations that share research findings, preferably of work that has reached an advanced stage or has been completed. The 2017 event will be held in Bournemouth House at Bournemouth University. Details of previous study days can be accessed online here! We also invite proposals for research posters.

If you are interested in participating, please send a 300-word abstract of your proposed presentation to bnacstudyday@gmail.com by 28^th February 2017. The Study Days organizing committee will review the proposals received on time and make a selection. Selected abstracts will be circulated to registered participants in advance and posted to the BNAC website.

Members of BNAC may attend the Nepal Study Days for free, though we will ask for a contribution towards the costs of the lunches. For non-members there will be a registration fee of £25, which will include lunch on both days.

We would like to encourage prospective participants to apply for or renew their membership for 2017 in time to be eligible for free registration. To download membership application form and for other details about BNAC membership, please visit www.bnac.ac.uk/membership/.

We hope to be in a position to offer small bursaries towards the travel costs of students from outside Bournemouth whose abstracts are accepted.

Deadline to submit abstracts: 28^th February 2016.

Deadline to register for those who are not presenting a paper but who wish to attend: 4^th April 2017.

For more information and registration, please contact the Nepal Study Days organizing team (Pramo Regmi, Jib Acharya, Preeti Mahato and Edwin van Teijlingen) at bnacstudyday@gmail.com.

The application form can be found here!

We suggest you book your accommodation in Bournemouth well in advance. To download the list of hotels close to the programme venue, click here.

For details about new membership application (and to download forms) or renewal, click here

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

Dr. Pramod Regmi

Mr. Jib Acharya

Mrs. Preeti Mahato

19 December 2016

New blog on Open Access publishing

international, open access, PG research, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Some months ago Andy Nobes asked my colleague Prof. Padam Simkhada and I if we could write a blog about why we had so many papers in freely available online journals in Nepal. Andy is the Programme Officer, Research Development & Support at INASP, which is an international development charity based in Oxford working with a global network of partners in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

We had a whole range of immediate answers to Andy’s question, including ones like: we both love Nepal; we are on the editorial board of a few journals that are part of the NepJOL group; and editors invite us to submit articles and/or editorials. Moreover, we feel reasons for Open Access publishing are very similar to our key reasons for working in a low-income country like Nepal. These principles are (a) conducting applied academic research in low-income countries for the greater good; (b) helping to build research-capacity; and (c) telling the world about our research through quality academic publications. This week saw the publication of our blog ‘Publishing in journals of the NepJOL family’ on the AuthorAid website, click here to read the post.

Edwin van Teijlingen, Professor of Reproductive Health Research at Bournemouth University and Padam Simkhada, Professor of International Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University and BU Visiting Faculty.

13 December 2016

New publication CMMPH student Donna Wixted

Festival of Learning, PG research, Public engagement, Publishing, student research, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to CMMPH’s Donna Wixted, Joint BU-Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, doctoral student who just had a paper published in MIDIRS.[1] The paper is titled ‘Drinking in pregnancy: poor guidelines or lack of evidence?’ The paper reports a very lively debate at the 2016 BU Festival of Learning which was a debate around the motion: “Advising pregnant women to avoid drinking alcohol during pregnancy is symptom of the Nanny State and another step towards the medicalisation of childbirth”. The debate was chaired by CMMPH’s Prof. Vanora Hundley.

The Festival of Learning event grew out of Donna’s PhD research. Donna’s PhD is jointly supervised by Dr. Greta Westwood of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust & the University of Southampton and FHSS academics Dr. Liz Norton and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen.

Reference:

Wixted, D., Hundley, V., Norton, L., van Teijlingen, E., Westwood, G. (2016) Drinking in pregnancy: poor guidelines or lack of evidence? MIDIRS Midwifery Digest 26(4): 462-65.

12 December 2016

Congratulations to Dr. Regmi new publication

international, open access, PG research, Public engagement, Publishing, writing Edwin van Teijlingen

Congratulations to Dr. Pramod Regmi in FHSS on the publication of the editorial ‘Need and Scope of Global Partnership on Public Health Research’ published this week. [1] As a global partnership, it is our intention to make a tangible impact upon major public health challenges, whilst strengthening the participating institutions in a sustainable manner. Our collaboration came to a consensus on a number of priority research areas, based on our strengths and collective experience and on our knowledge of the key global issues for the next decades (Table 1). The paper is led by BU Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada and co-authored by another BU Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada. The editorial is in an Open Access journal hence freely available to any researcher or practitioner (or policy maker) with internet-access in our collaborating countries.

Table 1 : Key areas of research focus of the consortium

Reproductive, maternal and child health
Rural and urban comparisons (Equity and health)
Nutrition
Environment and health
Health systems and health workforce
Health, lifestyle and substance use
Non-Communicable Diseases
Preventable road traffic injuries and safety
Disability

Reference:

Simkhada, P., Poudel, A.N., Simkhada, B., Sumnall, H., Jones, L., Bista, S., McVeigh, J., Gaidhane, A., Zahiruddin, Q.S., Chowdhury, M.E., Bhuiyan, M.B.A.S., Iliyasu, Z., Pant, P.R., Kurmi, O., Hill, R., van Teijlingen, E., Regmi, P. (2016) Need and Scope of Global Partnership on Public Health Research, The Journal of Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences University 11(3): 260-262.

17 October 2016

The social sciences at BU

BU Challenges, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Exchange, Public engagement, Student Engagement brichards

Earlier this year a Fusion-funded series of public events at BU was organised by Professors Ann Brooks (FHSS), Candida Yates (FMC) and Barry Richards (FMC). For these ‘Dialogues in the Social Sciences’, leading social scientists were invited to speak at BU, along with other figures from outside and inside academia, on topics of current concern. The aim was to offer to BU students and staff, and to members of the local public, opportunities to hear and take part in authoritative and informed discussion of social and political issues.

The first was entitled ‘Increasing inequality? Widening opportunity? Debating higher education reform’ Two leading educationists from the University of London Institute of Education discussed the Higher Education Green Paper. Professor Sir Peter Scott (former editor of THE, and former V-C of Kingston University) and Professor Ann Phoenix, eminent psychosocial researcher, outlined their analysis of the prospects for the sector. BU’s Dr. Mastoureh Fathi (FHSS) and Ellie Mayo-Ward (SUBU V-P) were respondents. Chaired by Professor Iain MacRury of FMC, this event explored some of the risks to the sector in the current proposals.

In the second event (‘Our scandalised society’), criminologist Professor Chris Greer (City University) and Lord Blair (Sir Ian Blair, former Commissioner of the Met) discussed key issues regarding how the British state is responding to scandal proliferation, the implications of scandal for crime control and institutional regulation in the digital age, and the risk of scapegoating as a substitute for understanding and solving, particularly in a 24/7 news environment. Professor Ann Brooks was in the chair for an intriguing examination of the roles of both media and police in this complex intersection of social changes.

Professor Matthew Feldman of Teesside University is an expert on the Far Right; he was joined for the third and final event by Emman el-Badawy of the University of Exeter and the Centre on Religion and Geopolitics, and Dr Usama Hasan of the counter-radicalisation organisation the Quilliam Foundation, both experts on violent jihadism. Under the title of ‘Radicalisation: what is it and what threat does it pose?’, Professor Barry Richards chaired a wide-ranging discussion which both put the current threat of Islamist terror in broader historical contexts and looked closely at some of the debates around the Prevent counter-terrorism programme.

Each one of these events demonstrated that with excellent speakers and a thoughtful audience, a good discussion is guaranteed. All of them involved both students and members of the public, though the challenge of drawing in large numbers for early evening extra-curricular events was also in evidence. As well as their value to participants, these events flagged up internally and externally that BU has a growing base of social-scientific expertise, networked with internationally leading experts and pursuing a clear public engagement mission.

5 October 2016

Webinar: Emotional Processing Scale from Prof Roger Baker 6th Oct 2pm

Louise Ward

Professor Roger Baker, the lead author of the Emotional Processing Scale, is running a webinar on Thursday 6th October 2-3pm, hosted by Hogrefe UK.

Roger Baker is a clinical psychologist and has taught clinical psychology at BU. He specialises in emotions and the treatment of anxiety disorders and has worked as a researcher and clinical psychologist at several universities and NHS Trusts.

Please follow this link to sign up to the webinar:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7941554061013769986

The Emotional Processing Scale is a questionnaire measure of a person’s emotional processing style, their typical way of processing emotional situations and it can be applied to mental health, pain, medical conditions and psychosomatic conditions. For more information please visit: http://emotionalprocessing.org/

23 September 2016

Fusion CCCP award into autism comes to a close

Festival of Learning, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Public engagement, Student Engagement, student research ngregory

Polly, Sarah, Jastine and Irma at the end of project dinner

A year ago, Dr Helen Bolderston and I began our Fusion CCCP award, examining visual and social processes in autism and borderline personality disorder. We quickly appointed two part-time RAs who were current MSc students on the Developmental and Clinical Neuropsychology programme. Due to their excellent skill sets, obtained during the undergraduate degrees at BU and whilst working as voluntary and summer RAs, Sarah Wellaway and Jastine Antolin were the obvious candidates. We were assisted by Level 5 Psychology undergraduates Pollyanna Sapsford, together with Irma Konovalova who joined us in the summer.

The first part of this project required us to write scripts for and film 32 short movies. More than twenty BU students were our actors and we had a couple of fun evenings in a dark and wet November filming these scenes in Poole House and the old Retreat (amidst the noise of angle grinders whirring as work on the new Fusion Building was underway!) It turned out that Polly was a superb Director, so I happily let her take charge of the filming, and what a great job she made of it!

Given autism was the topic of Sarah’s MSc dissertation, she took the lead in organising the administrative side of the project which involved recruiting volunteers with autism from the local area. We made some fantastic connections with local organisations including Dorset Adult Asperger’s Support Group, Autism Wessex and the Cambian Wing College, with Sarah playing a huge role in making that happen. Together with our connections with the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge and with Research Autism, we managed to recruit thirty participants with the condition (many of whom also took part in Sarah’s MSc experiment) and we are happy to report that almost all of them said they would love to come back and take part in future studies.

Polly and Irma’s final year dissertations are closely related to the Fusion project and will build on the insights they gained whilst working on this research over the last year.

Sarah, Jastine and I in a very hot and humid Barcelona!

The BPS Cognitive Section Conference: presenting our co-created and co-produced work

The autism branch of the study is almost complete and we hope to have the BPD side of the project wrapped up early in 2017. We presented our preliminary findings at the Festival of Learning this year and at the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Annual Conference in Barcelona earlier this month. The Fusion award allowed not only me as presenter to attend the conference, but also Sarah and Jastine. It was a great way to end their time on the project as their contracts came to an end.

If anyone is in doubt about the benefits of involving students in their research, and in applying for Fusion funding, I can do no better than to let the students speak for themselves:

“My personal experience of being an RA for this project was invaluable. I have learnt a wealth of information and had first-hand experience in the organisation of a research project from beginning to end. The skills that I have acquired and developed during this time have been innumerable and I have also been given the opportunity to pass such skills to research apprentices. As part of this project I was also lucky enough to be able to attend the annual Cognitive Psychology Conference in Barcelona, which was not only an amazing experience but I also gained excellent tips from many professionals on delivering presentations as well as furthering my knowledge within fields that I had yet to learn about. And did I mention it was in BARCELONA!!” Sarah Wellaway

“It has been a huge privilege to be an RA and be part of a very motivated multidisciplinary team. This experience has expanded my knowledge and has provided me various research skills. It has also provided me opportunity to attend and take part in disseminating our research findings in a BPS conference abroad as well as exchanging ideas with academics who were experts in other psychological sub-fields. Overall, this experience has enabled me to attain personal and professional development, as it has increased my self-confidence and have provided me a set of abilities that will make me more employable in the future”. Jastine Antolin.

From my perspective as PI and an early career researcher, the last year has been incredible. We built a fantastic multidisciplinary team of academics, clinicians and students; we engaged external stakeholders like our participants with autism and the local support groups; we inspired a bunch of students by giving them invaluable experiences and skills for their future careers and on top of all that, conducted some cutting edge research in collaboration with one of the leading autism research centres in the world. It was hard work, but there is no doubt: it was certainly worth it!

Nicola Gregory, Lecturer in Psychology

20 September 2016

‘Tagging your identity’

Public engagement mobrien

Last week Ben Hicks and Shanti Shanker from BUDI and the Psychology Department hosted a series of Graffiti workshops for people with dementia and their care partners. The workshops were led by an experienced Graffiti Artist from Graff Inc. who worked with the participants to develop an individual ‘tag’ and piece of street art that represented their sense of identity.

The label of ‘dementia’ has the power to evoke fear and stigma and this can detrimentally impact on the identity of people living with the condition and those supporting them. The Graffiti workshops provided an empowering opportunity for people to express and reclaim a sense of ‘self’ as well as challenge negative preconceptions of Graffiti, such as who uses it and for what purpose. It shows that people with dementia still have a sense of identity that they can still identify with. The workshops were enjoyed by all those who attended.

The final pieces of street art that were created will be displayed at the Subway between ASDA and the Handelsbanken Building, below A35 (or St Paul’s Road), Bournemouth from 5th October. Please go and check them out!

Category / Psychology

Webinar: Emotional Processing Scale from Prof Roger Baker 6th Oct 2pm

Fusion CCCP award into autism comes to a close

‘Tagging your identity’

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