Research and development

Information on research and development related to Older People

COT Specialist Section - Older People offers research grant to our members

A research award of up to £1000 is available to our members. The closing date was the 31st October 2011.
The Grant's purpose is to:

• Support research activity in a topic relevant to the research priorities of COT Specialist Section - Older People
• To support research undertaken as part of an educational postgraduate programme
• To commission research in a specific area where the specialist section has identified a need

Research and Development Strategic Vision and Action Plan for Occupational Therapists working for Older People

 
This document launched at the November 2004 COT SS - Older People Conference, you can download the R&D Strategic Vision and Action plan
 
Details of progress against the objectives are outlined in the Action Plan Review Summary July 2006
 

Research and Projects - Who, What and Where?

Clinical forum members are often engaged in projects or research related to further study or work activities. However the opportunity to share what is happening across the country is generally fairly limited, masking the level of positive work taking place.
 
To facilitate sharing of such information, the National Executive Committee is inviting members who are involved in specific research/project activities, to consider providing some basic information about particular work/topic.
 
A simple form has been compiled which you can download, print and complete and then send to the Specialist Section – Older People Research Officer, Avril Drummond at; Division of Rehabilitation and Ageing, B Floor, The Medical School, Queen's Medical Centre (QMC), Nottingham. NG7 2UH.
 
We are only asking for minimal detail as this will enable the information to be published in the Newsletter and thus shared within the membership.
Download the Research and Projects Template

Specialist Sections are required to comply with research governance requirements

A process of ethical review now exists to facilitate fulfillment of responsibilities. For Specialist Sections the arrangements apply specifically to research, audit, service evaluation and gathering customer feedback. 
 
Where work is being undertaken by (or on behalf of in the case of externally commissioned work) the specialist section, any requests for assistance with research need to be reviewed under the COT process.
 
Further information can be found on the COT R&D pages and Reel, K. (2006) "Summary report on the College of Occupational Therapists' Research Governance Arrangements." British Journal of Occupational Therapy 69 (2) 86-90

Request to use the Specialist Section - Older People membership list for research purposes

We cannot give out our members' names and addresses for confidentiality reasons, however you may be able to send information via the specialist section or contact members via the discussion forum. This process is currently being reviewed.

POTTER project

The POTTER project led by Dr Katrina Brannigan at York St John College aims to identify the current national research priorities for occupational therapy research in the UK
 
The Specialist Section - Older People was invited to participate to identify the priorities for research for older people and to take part in a consensus conference held in November 2005. Dr. Alison Laver attended the conference on the Specialist Section - Older People's behalf to reflect these priorities. Data was collected during an “idea generation session” from the 83 delegates attending the Specialist Section - Older People annual conference on the 10th of November 2005 and via email from other research aware/research active members.
 
The top 5 priorities for research were considered to be, in no particular order of importance; Active Ageing & Occupation, Assistive Technology, Falls, Dementia and Intermediate Care. At the consensus conference all specialist sections and other research aware/active delegates shared their priorities and this was then debated and discussed in small groups and then shared to arrive at an overall consensus priority list as follows:

• Strategies to facilitate research utilisation
• Occupation focused outcome measurement
• Occupation focused interventions
• User perspectives
• Vocational rehabilitation
• Health promotion
• Longitudinal resource cost efficiency
• Scope of OT practice
• Integrated service delivery

 
These priorities are sufficiently broad as to be interpreted widely and it was considered that the Specialist Section - Older People's priorities were embraced by these topics.

Further information

For information about R&D contact:
Avril Drummond, Research and Development Officer
avril.drummond@nottingham.ac.uk