Making Care Home Research Accessible

ENRICH (Enabling Research in Care Homes) Scotland aims to improve the quality of life, treatments and care for care home residents.

RICH (Research in Care Homes) Voices are the ‘Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)’ group for ENRICH Scotland, and started mid-2022. The group aims to include people living and working in care homes in research-related activities, but is open to all those with an interest in care home related research. Since the group’s conception, we have worked hard to find ways to make the groups ideas come to life, including the co-creation of a podcast, and this accessible research page.

Listen as members of the RICH Voices community discuss starting a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Group in care homes

This co-created page represents a key aspect of our ongoing PPI objectives to improve outreach and impact within our RICH Voices and Partners in Research (PiR) groups.

This page is a collection of RICH Voices work across ENRICH Scotland. This includes lay summaries, video, blogs, written work, podcast and an image library. We aim to make this content as accessible as possible to encourage anyone who has an interest in care homes to read about our research and the work of others, and we welcome your feedback and ideas. This furthers our goal of bringing together care home staff, residents and researchers to facilitate the design and delivery of research and to improve the quality of life, treatments and care for all residents.

We encourage all users to watch, read and share our content as widely as they would like.

We are in the process of developing this webpage, for any specific questions please contact tay.enrichscotland@nhs.scot.

Our Team

Professor Susan Shenkin l Co-Chair ENRICH Scotland

Susan has been working as a clinical academic in geriatric medicine at the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian since 2011, with main interests in cognitive ageing/delirium & dementia, and the health and care of residents and staff of care homes, in particular the role of data and technology. She has skills in data linkage in health and social care, and systematic reviews, and particularly enjoys interdisciplinary working.

She is part of the Advanced Care Research Centre (edin.care) and is Systematic Reviews Editor for Age and Ageing.

Susan joined Dr Emma Law as co-chair of ENRICH in 2019, and they have worked together as part of the interdisciplinary team to build the infrastructure of ENRICH and to work with the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government to secure funding. She also co-chairs the Lothian CHIP (Care Home Innovation Partnership) and is a strong advocate for working across and between disciplines to promote research to understand and improve the care for care home residents, their families and those who care for them.

Dr Rosie Ashworth l Patient and Public Involvement (RICH Voices) Co-Lead

Rosie Ashworth is the co-lead for RICH Voices and lead for Partners in Research, the 'patient and public involvement' groups for ENRICH Scotland and NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia Network respectively. As a research psychologist with a background in dementia research, Rosie has a passion for working closely with people with lived experience in research-related activities. In recent years, Rosie has worked with people living with dementia to co-write a book about their experiences, and is in the process of developing co-research with people living with neuroprogressive conditions.

Anna Crawford l Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Officer

Anna Crawford is the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Officer for ENRICH Scotland and the Advanced Care Research Centre (ACRC) at the University of Edinburgh. She is one of two co-leads for the PPI group, Research in Care Home (RICH) Voices. She is also a graduate from the University of West London (UWL) with a BSc degree in Nutrition and Food Management. While at UWL, she worked as a Research Assistant at the School of Biomedical Sciences where she assisted in the development of a regional patient and public involvement network for those living with young onset dementia in collaboration with the University of Bradford and University of Northampton. Prior to this role, Anna was a field researcher at ICF on the EU Reformulation and Monitoring (EUREMO) study with an objective of delivering an interoperable dataset of nutritional information on processed foods sold in 15 EU Member States.

Martin Robertson l RICH Voices Core Team

“I was diagnosed in 2016 with PCA and want there to be meaningful research for me to do when I go into Care. Currently, I have been taking 360 photos of the village and going into the local Care Home with a VR Headset (both bought through ex Life Changes Trust Fund now administered by About Dementia) and the residents, once they get used to the Headset love seeing their old haunts.”

David Ross l RICH Voices Core Team

“I am a retired Engineer and carer for my late wife, and spent 36 years working and travelling overseas. Mixing with many different nationalities and cultures you develop a wider understanding and empathy with people who come from and live in totally different circumstances to your own. This gives you a greater appreciation of issues and problems that may arise, but doesn’t fully prepare you for dealing with a loved one struck down with a serious and debilitating form of dementia and the new challenges that presents. Committing your wife into full time care that very day of the Covid lockdown made me realise just how unprepared I was, but my experiences and resilience changed me and made me even more determined to battle for greater in-depth research and better conditions for our social care residents”

Lay Summaries

We aim to enable researchers to share findings, raise awareness, and bridge the gap between “everyday practice” and academia. A lay summary is a short piece of content used to explain research to members of the public. By co-creating these summaries, we can foster the outreach of wider academics and/or care home researchers to engage with people with lived experience by sharing findings and showcasing these outputs to have lasting impacts. We have integrated media tools (TypeForm, Etherpad) and readability checkers (Hemingway Editor or WebFX) to allow real-time editing and comments on lay summaries.

We will invite people who are conducting care home research to share lay summaries of what they are doing and importantly, how it relates to everyday practice within a care home. If readers would then like to hear more detail about the work, contact details will be available. The use of this platform is designed to foster meaningful collaboration between researchers, care home stakeholders and RICH Voices members.

Read Lay Summaries

Video Content

As part of our commitment to accessible communication, ENRICH Scotland have supported videos on numerous topics.

Blogs and Articles

Written updates on PPI activities.

Professor Susan Shenkin, Co-Director of ENRICH Scotland, writes for the British Society of Gerontology on how to take part in care home research

Podcast

We are in the process of creating a RICH Voices podcast, an idea generated by RICH Voices for provided accessible and accurate information about care home research. Our four-part podcast series that sets the scene of care home research, looks at the benefits of research involvement, explores the challenges for research in care homes, and look at the future for research in care homes. Podcasts are being recorded online as well as within care homes to capture a wide range of voices.

The four podcast episodes will focus on:

Setting the scene - care home research
Benefits and impact of research
Challenges and how to overcome them
Future directions for care home research

People can get involved with this series by asking and/or answering questions on the podcast; desiging a logo/branding for the series; and developing the content of episodes and questions to be asked.

Alongside the podcast, we have received some funding to co-create a film about what research participation in care homes can look like. We are hoping that be showcasing the range of research types and how they look in practice will help demystify research and increase people’s confidence in taking part.

ENRICH Scotland Newsletter

An archive of all our monthly newsletters.

Image Library

As an output from our An Introduction to ENRICH Scotland video, we created an image library from extra footage. This content will be used in future ENRICH promotion.

We also received funds to purchase media equipment to showcase “what accessible science can look like”. This library will be continuously updated with images that are free to use. We will also upload any other relevant content such as, logos and posters.

Academic Publications

On the 6th September 2023 our paper was published online.

This article describes the components of enabling research in care homes in Scotland and the research infrastructure the team are developing to enable more research, including clinical trials, to be carried out in Scottish care homes, and how this will benefit the residents, families and staff.

Read the article

Research in Scotland