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The Greenwood Institute of Child Health is a unique collaboration between the University and public service providers such as the NHS, which aims to improve psychological outcomes for children in high-risk settings. From 1993 to 2013, Greenwood's research has highlighted the increased risk of mental health, drug dependence and criminal activity among children who suffer trauma — through abuse, living in care, homelessness or war. Greenwood's programme of research has identified the complex and persistent needs of vulnerable children and contributed to changes in policy guidelines and service provision across social care in the UK (foster care / adoption, juvenile detention and homelessness) and abroad (war). Collaboration between researchers at the Greenwood Institute, service providers and practitioners has been instrumental in the establishment of clinically relevant and cost-effective care pathways, while community engagement has led to improved service provision and outcomes for vulnerable children and their families / carers in the UK and further afield.
Research in Warwick's Centre for the History of Medicine (CHM) provides much needed historical perspective for current debates about well-being and the family. In uncovering a longer history of the influence of psycho-social thinking on health, it offers comparative insight and potential lessons, and tempers contemporary anxieties about `toxic childhood', the changing role of fathers, and the politics of childcare and maternity. Through the creative arts and broadcast media, our research connects to public debate on understandings of well-being, parenting and the changing nature of childhood. The research has informed policy discussions on children, young people and family services, and has influenced the ideas and practices of professionals in the third sector.
Improving outcomes for children, young people and families focuses on supporting the development of health and social care initiatives to promote social inclusion and improve quality of life, family cohesion, and health outcomes for `troubled', at risk, and disadvantaged families, demonstrating the following impact:
Since 1994, a team from the University of Reading, led by Peter Cooper, Professor (1993-) and Lynne Murray, Professor (1996-), have published extensively on postnatal depression (PND), revealing important information on the prevalence, detection rates, prediction and assessment of this disorder. Furthermore, their studies examined the impact of PND on the mother-infant relationship and child development, and the effectiveness of interventions for PND. This work has been key to clarifying the nature of PND and its clinical significance and has had a major impact on clinical care for women with PND and their babies. Specifically, the research has provided support for an increased number of health visitors in the UK, influenced UK practice guidelines, and informed training delivered directly to healthcare professionals by Cooper and Murray. Cooper and Murray have extended their UK research to work in an impoverished community in South Africa, which has given rise to community-based parenting interventions that are now being disseminated both in South Africa and beyond.
Research conducted by Peter Elfer has shown the significance of attention to babies and under threes' emotional well-being in nursery if early learning is to be effective. Children who are continually anxious or distressed do not learn well. A sensitive, responsive and consistent relationship with mainly one or two members of nursery staff (now known as the child's `key-person') has been shown to promote in young children feelings of safety and security. The research has underpinned the development of the key-person role in nurseries, as the means for enabling individual attention to children. This research has had a significant impact in the following areas:
1) UK Government curriculum guidance and requirements
2) Training of the early years workforce and continuing professional development
3) The evolution of UK Coalition Government policy and public discourse
The reach of the research is extensive, providing the underpinning for attachment practice in English nurseries. The above developments have strengthened the expectation in national standards of greater attention to the emotions of babies and young children in nursery and have provided the detailed guidance on how this can be achieved in practice.
In the context of Law Commission reports on legislation in mental capacity, in 1999, Tony Holland published a ground-breaking review on capacity and an empirical study of the capacity of people with mental disorders. Through Holland's role as one of two expert advisers to a Parliamentary Pre-legislative Scrutiny Committee in 2003, this work directly informed the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Code, both of which remain current. With full implementation of the Mental Capacity Act in 2007, Holland's studies from 2008 refined concepts of capacity and best interests for clinical practice; and have examined other aspects of the Mental Capacity Act including advocacy, the Mental Capacity Act in different clinical settings, and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
A research programme of randomised controlled trials undertaken at the University of Southampton demonstrating the efficacy of the New Forest Parenting Programme (NFPP) played a crucial role in: (i) influencing the developers of clinical guidelines to recommend parent training in general as a core part of the treatment of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and (ii) establishing the NFPP, in particular, as a widely employed evidence-based treatment for ADHD, a condition estimated to affect up to 400,000 children in the UK alone. As a direct result of the trials, the programme, a novel therapeutic intervention that teaches parents of preschool children with ADHD how to modify their children's behaviour and improve their self-regulation, has been included in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and other clinical guidelines and recommended internationally as an effective alternative to medication, which often brings only short-term benefits and is associated with a range of potentially debilitating side-effects.
Research by the UCL Dental Public Health Group has led the international field in the development and validation of quality of life (QoL) measures associated with oral health. Tsakos and Sheiham instigated the development of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP) measure in 1996 followed by the Child Oral Impacts on Daily Life (Child-OIDP) in 2004. Both of these outcome measures have been employed in epidemiological surveys of needs assessment by local health providers in London resulting in enhanced use of resources, better staff training, and improved patient care and health care access. These measures have been employed in the most significant NHS surveys of oral health of adults and children in the UK as well as used by health organisations across the globe. The outcomes of Tsakos' research on oral epidemiology and QoL, together with engagement with policy makers in the UK and Europe, have raised the profile of oral health and is influencing health care policies nationally and internationally.
UNICEF estimate that over 3,500 children die annually from abuse and neglect in economically developed countries, including 100 in the UK of whom around 4 are from Northern Ireland. Although the number of deaths appears to be falling in the UK, the rate of decline is slowing. This case study describes the impact of three related pieces of research undertaken for the Northern Ireland Executive and the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People. The aim was to identify the things that policy makers and practitioners could do differently in order to protect children better, and has led to significant improvements into how reviews are undertaken, and in the child protection policies and practices in Northern Ireland. As a result children have been better protected by child welfare professionals.
University of Nottingham research in the field of recovery has had a major influence on changes in mental health policy. It has led to a new model of service provision both in the UK (including through NICE guidance and the NHS's outcomes framework) and internationally (including in Western Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, Australia and Asia). The work has contributed to a reduction in the use of mainstream services and has enhanced the quality of life enjoyed by people with mental health problems. It has also been central to the Department of Health's Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change programme, which has pioneered the use of Recovery Colleges and peer support workers in mental health care in the UK.