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The three impacts outlined here derive from research by Professors Ivor Gaber and Jon Silverman into the relationship between the media and the formation and development of policy in the fields of child protection, drugs policy and mental health. Gaber and Silverman were members of the Munro Review of Child Protection (2010/11), and their input led to recommendations about the management of media relations during child protection crises. Silverman's research into the media and drugs policy contributed to the final report of the influential UK Drug Policy Commission (October 2012). Gaber was a member of the Independent Inquiry into the Care and Treatment of Michael Stone (2006) and worked with the Mental Health Alliance, both of which played significant roles in the policy debates that led to the reform of the Mental Health Act.
The findings of an innovative ethnographic study of Health Care Assistants (HCAs) who care for dementia patients were used to create a stage play, Inside out of Mind,which was performed to audiences of HCAs, NHS managers and the general public.
The performances raised awareness with NHS managers and healthcare policy makers, of the role and importance of HCAs; their working environment, the skills they need and the difficulties they encounter. It enabled HCAs to reflect upon their practice and to identify specific areas upon which they would focus to improve care.
Since 2007, Open University (OU) researchers have been examining the BBC World Service (BBCWS) from the perspectives of its diaspora broadcasters in London and its diaspora audiences worldwide. Multilingual migrants have always enabled the BBCWS to broadcast in many languages, creating a cultural bridge to global audiences. Increasingly, BBCWS audiences themselves are diasporic: living outside territorial `homelands'. The research made the BBC aware of its diasporas for the first time. By demonstrating their significance, it led to changes in BBCWS strategy, editorial practices, human resources management and institutional memory. The historic collaboration between the BBC and the OU has acquired new dimensions.
The work in this Case Study details the impact of James Moir's research on communication across different institutional areas of public life, including, health consultations and pedagogical discourse in higher education. Specific impacts include influencing the way in which general practitioners in medicine are trained with respect to their discussions within medical consultations; and contributing to pedagogical debate and policy within the Higher Education sector, particularly in Scotland with respect to the discourse on graduate attributes.
In 2008 the Philosophy Department decided to organise its impact strategy around the research activities of the Essex Autonomy Project (EAP). EAP research has been conducted in two distinct strands with different research outputs and impacts. This case study summarises the impact of our interdisciplinary research on the legal/psychiatric concept of `mental capacity.' Through the EAP practitioner network, Summer School, and on-site workforce training programme, that research is now informing and changing the assessment of capacity undertaken by frontline medical professionals and social workers acting under the 2005 Mental Capacity Act.
This case study focuses upon discourse analytical research showing the importance of understanding communication activities in clinical settings, most particularly in mental health care and in transplantation medicine. The research described below has had an immediate impact upon educational and professional practice in medical settings in two European countries. The change that was engendered by the research can be seen both in educating clinicians in Poland as well as in changing communication practices of the British NHSBT.
Research undertaken at the University of Manchester (UoM) considers legal guidelines as they relate to the Care of Extremely Premature and/or Sick Neonates and has sought to identify deficiencies in the law, clarify the issues at stake in policy debates and make proposals for constructive responses. Impact has occurred through the utilisation of research in an influential Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) report. This has led to uptake within guidance provided to health professionals and parents, and ultimately the implementation of report recommendations — most notably the timetable that correlates the decision process on resuscitation to set stages in gestational age, alongside a more holistic approach to best interests — by the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) in 2008. The BAPM guidance continues to have a significant impact on clinical practice.