Category: Active

Currently, there are no rehabilitation programmes specifically developed for young adults who have had a stroke, with none that take into account of the role of the outdoors and natural environments in order to improve physical health, psychological health and quality of life.

View the poster

If you are aged between 18 to 65 years of age, have had a stroke from cerebral infarct or haemorrhage within the last three years and can walk continuously for 5 minutes, please contact Rebecca Clarke either by email Rebecca.clarke8@stu.mmu.ac.uk or telephone 07852739609 if you wish to participate.

Virtual Reality (VR) allows a person to interact within a virtual world through a device such as goggles or a hand controller. There is a small amount of research suggesting that VR can be useful in helping post-stroke patients build on the recovery of their muscle function. The purpose of this study is to examine how feasible & useful using VR is in relation to another method used to help improve finger function in stroke survivors.

Due to COVID-19 this study will be conducted virtually, there will be no face-to-face contact.

We are looking for individuals who:

• Are over 18 years old.
• Are able to give informed consent.
• Had a stroke over 3 months ago.
• Have reduced motor ability in one of their hands.
• Have reduced motor ability in their non-dominant hand (not the hand you used for writing before the stroke).
• Have access to the internet and are familiar with using a computer, or laptop.
• Understand and read English.
• Are not using the Nine-hole-peg test as part of their rehabilitation/ usual care.

Unfortunately, at this stage we are unable to include individuals with:

• Any significant visual problems
• A history of motion sickness.
• Aphasia (Aphasia is when a person has difficulty with their language or speech).

This is a small study to test the feasibility of using VR in the post-stroke population. If this technology shows promise, we hope to include participants from the above groups in the future.

If you think you fit the participant criteria and are interested in taking part, please contact Bethany Strong via email (Bethany.strong@southwales.ac.uk) for more details.

Click here to download the Participant Information Sheet.

 

Regardless of your job title, are you a nurse or allied health professional in a formal or informally recognised clinical leadership position for stroke working in acute, rehabilitation or community-based care?

Are you involved with overseeing the clinical organisation for stroke services, providing support for ensuring the quality of stroke care delivered, or facilitating the patient pathway?

Then you have a coordinator role and WE NEED YOU FOR A SURVEY!!
We know that coordinator roles make a difference in the clinical setting. The evidence is that these roles can positively impact quality and outcomes of care for people with stroke.
BUT
What remains unclear is the scope of practice and barriers to these non-medical coordinator roles. This survey, being conducted by Monash University (Australia) through the University of Central Lancashire (UK), will assist in defining the scope of practice of staff in coordinator roles in stroke, and allow comparisons across the UK and internationally. More than ever, completing this survey now is relevant. The quality of stroke care may be eroded because of COVID-19 and the reorganisation of hospital services and staffing to mitigate transmission and manage cases. In these challenging times, we feel it is important to highlight the importance of these roles in stroke care and to clearly describe the responsibilities and contributions of staff in these positions to the delivery of best practice stroke care before COVID-19 impacted on health services. These data may then be used to advocate for these essential roles in stroke care.

What do you need to do?
The participant information sheet, which contains detailed information about the study and clearly explains all processes involved, and the survey can be completed online via the following link:
UK Coordinator Survey (URL https://redcap.mhtp.org.au/surveys/?s=CHAA4N9JYT)

Alternatively, attached are hard copy versions, that once completed, can be scanned and emailed to SSEFEnquiries@uclan.ac.uk, using encryption at the discretion of your institution. We would be grateful if you could please find time to complete it by 29th Nov 2020.

Please only complete the survey once. Completion of the survey will be considered implied consent. The survey will take approximately 20-25 minutes. Participants who complete the survey will be offered the chance to enter into a prize draw to win one of three £50 Amazon vouchers.

If you do not believe you personally fit this role, please pass the survey onto the relevant staff member/s to complete. If your service has more than one person in this role, please encourage all relevant staff to complete the survey. Alternatively, if your service does not have a coordinator role, we would be grateful if you would still complete Part 1 of the survey, which provides organisational context.

Thank you for considering participating in this study. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UK study coordinator Colette Miller on cmiller5@uclan.ac.uk or on 01772 893693.

UK Coordinator Survey Docuemnt

Participant Information Sheet

 

Source: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, VITAE

For more details, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BEIS_C-19_Impact_on_research

Source: Queen Mary University of London

For more details, please visit https://www.qmul.ac.uk/covidence/

Our team has designed a model to help people visualise how high blood pressure (hypertension) affects their circulatory system. The model will be shown to people during a consultation with a pharmacist or a doctor. The purpose of this study is to find out your opinions on this version of the hypertension model. We will use people’s views to understand what parts of the model work and what parts we can improve. We also want to know if the information we provide about hypertension is clear and easy to understand. For more information or to sign up to the study, please contact Sarah Brown. 
Click here for more information (PDF)

Email: sabrown@cardiffmet.ac.uk

This study is investigating the vision that remains in people with homonymous visual field defects (HVFD). A HVFD is a deficit that results in a person not being able to see on one side. Specifically, we are investigating something called ‘macular sparing’, where some vision on the blind side (close to the centre) remains. It is not clear why some vision is spared. One explanation is that some important parts of the brain are left undamaged. An alternative explanation is that the spared vision does not really exist, it just appears to exist because of the way your vision is normally measured. We hope to work out which explanation is correct using a combination of vision testing and brain imaging. For more information or to sign up to the study, please contact Mason Wells.

Click here for more information (PDF)

Email: WellsMT1@cardiff.ac.uk

Phone: 02920 879628

Click here to view the trials

A Survey on the Screening and Diagnosis of Unilateral Spatial Neglect – research conducted by Mr Matthew Checketts & Professor Audrey Bowen (University of Manchester)

More Information

If you would like to get involved stroke research projects at UCLAN please download the newsletter below.

UCLAN stroke-newsletter (203KB PDF)