Louca-Mai Brady
Background in applied social policy research and evaluation, as well as developing and delivering training and workshops with professionals and children and young people. Research interests: qualitative and participative research methods, research with children and young people, health, public health and social care, participation and public involvement. PhD (2017) on children and young people's participation in health services and research.
Phone: 07380 529001
Phone: 07380 529001
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The project sought to identify data currently collected on the nature and impact of young people’s involvement by the NIHR Clinical Research Network: Children (CRN Children), and consider the scope for future data collection across NIHR.
Arguments supporting the involvement of users in research have even more weight when involving the public in systematic reviews of research. We aimed to explore the potential for public involvement in systematic reviews of observational and qualitative studies.
Methods
Two consultative workshops were carried out with a group of young people (YP) aged 12–17 years to examine two ongoing reviews about obesity: one about children's views and one on the link between obesity and educational attainment. YP were invited to comment on the credibility of themes, to propose elements of interventions, to suggest links between educational attainment and obesity and to comment on their plausibility.
Results
Researchers had more confidence in review findings, after checking that themes identified as important by YP were emphasised appropriately. Researchers were able to use factors linking obesity and attainment identified as important by YP to identify limitations in the scope of extant research.
Conclusion
Consultative workshops helped researchers draw on the perspectives of YP when interpreting and reflecting upon two systematic reviews. Involving users in judging synthesis credibility and identifying concepts was easier than involving them in interpreting findings. Involvement activities for reviews should be designed with review stage, purpose and group in mind
Thesis
This study drew on theories of participation and childhood, and considered how these were informed by debates around children’s rights, citizenship and agency in relation to young people’s participation in health services and research. Using a participative research approach informed by an action research methodology, the study sought to explore how participation was understood and operationalised in two case studies: a community children’s health partnership and a randomised controlled feasibility trial. Through working collaboratively with adults and young people in these case studies, and informed by a wider process of collaborative inquiry, the study sought to build capacity through learning to inform the embedding of participation.
This study found that participation in health services and research was still conceptualised primarily as adult-initiated, context-specific collective participation in formal settings which potentially excludes some of the young people most likely to use health services and limits the potential for fundamental change. The learning from the study identified the potential for new approaches which would do more to transfer power to young people, and informed a rights-based framework for embedding participation in practice.
The project sought to identify data currently collected on the nature and impact of young people’s involvement by the NIHR Clinical Research Network: Children (CRN Children), and consider the scope for future data collection across NIHR.
Arguments supporting the involvement of users in research have even more weight when involving the public in systematic reviews of research. We aimed to explore the potential for public involvement in systematic reviews of observational and qualitative studies.
Methods
Two consultative workshops were carried out with a group of young people (YP) aged 12–17 years to examine two ongoing reviews about obesity: one about children's views and one on the link between obesity and educational attainment. YP were invited to comment on the credibility of themes, to propose elements of interventions, to suggest links between educational attainment and obesity and to comment on their plausibility.
Results
Researchers had more confidence in review findings, after checking that themes identified as important by YP were emphasised appropriately. Researchers were able to use factors linking obesity and attainment identified as important by YP to identify limitations in the scope of extant research.
Conclusion
Consultative workshops helped researchers draw on the perspectives of YP when interpreting and reflecting upon two systematic reviews. Involving users in judging synthesis credibility and identifying concepts was easier than involving them in interpreting findings. Involvement activities for reviews should be designed with review stage, purpose and group in mind
This study drew on theories of participation and childhood, and considered how these were informed by debates around children’s rights, citizenship and agency in relation to young people’s participation in health services and research. Using a participative research approach informed by an action research methodology, the study sought to explore how participation was understood and operationalised in two case studies: a community children’s health partnership and a randomised controlled feasibility trial. Through working collaboratively with adults and young people in these case studies, and informed by a wider process of collaborative inquiry, the study sought to build capacity through learning to inform the embedding of participation.
This study found that participation in health services and research was still conceptualised primarily as adult-initiated, context-specific collective participation in formal settings which potentially excludes some of the young people most likely to use health services and limits the potential for fundamental change. The learning from the study identified the potential for new approaches which would do more to transfer power to young people, and informed a rights-based framework for embedding participation in practice.