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Who's Who in the Alliance

CONTACT DETAILS

Sally Wyke

Director

Alliance for Self Care Research

Sally’s first degree was in Human Sciences, at University College London and her PhD in Health Care Research at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She has worked as a health services researcher and lecturer at the University of Wales, the MRC Medical Sociology Unit, Queen Margaret University College and the University of Edinburgh. Her research has included the social patterning of health and illness, people’s responses to illness and use of primary care services and the organisation and delivery of primary care. She was Director of the Scottish School of Primary Care between 2000 and 2004 and received an honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2004. Sally has been Director of the Alliance for Self Care Research since 2005.

Publications Successful Research Grants

Dept of Nursing & Midwifery
R.G. Bomont Building

University of Stirling

Stirling FK9 4LA
Tel: 01786 466381

Vikki Entwistle

Professor of Values in Healthcare

Social Dimensions of Health Institute

Vikki has previously worked at the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York, the Health Services Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen and Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard School of Public Health. She has conducted research in a number of domains, including: media coverage of health issues; the development and provision of information about health care effectiveness for service users; the involvement of service users in health services research and planning; the involvement of individuals in decisions about their own health care; and patients' perspectives on and roles in ensuring their safety as they use health services. Vikki has served on a number of health services research and policy committees, was formerly an editor with the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Group and is currently Deputy Editor, Health Expectations. Within the Alliance for Self Care Research, Vikki is focusing particularly on ethical issues that arise in relation to the way self-care is supported in health service contexts, and on tensions that exist between the promotion of (particular forms of self care) and other health care policies.

Publications Successful Research Grants

School of Nursing & Midwifery
Universities of Dundee & St Andrews
Social Dimensions of Health Institute
11 Airlie Place

Dundee DD1 4HJ

Tel: 01382 388658

Thilo Kroll

Reader, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Dundee

Deputy Director of the Interdisciplinary Disability Research Institute

Before coming to Scotland Thilo worked at the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) Research Division in Washington DC. He has conducted disability-related health services research in the United States, the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. His professional background in psychology has led to a variety of research studies combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. Thilo has a strong interest in advancing participatory research and training opportunities for people with disabilities (e.g. spinal cord injuries) and chronic conditions (e.g. pediatric cancer, arthritis). Currently, he serves as the Co-PI of an ESRC funded multidisciplinary study that examines the role, application, and use of advanced technologies in the lives of people with disabilities. Other research interests include homelessness and disability, self care and disability, exercise and physical activity, social exclusion and disability and inclusive research designs and methodologies. Thilo is particularly interested in peer-to-peer interventions for people with disabilities and the consumer-directed education programmes for health care professionals. He currently serves as a Consultant to the federally funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Spinal Cord Injury: Promoting Health and Preventing Complications Through Exercise in the US. Thilo received his doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Bremen, Germany.

Publications Successful Research Grants

School of Nursing & Midwifery
Universities of Dundee & St Andrews
Social Dimensions of Health Institute
11 Airlie Place

Dundee DD1 4HJ

Tel: 01382 388658

Martyn Jones

Associate Director Social Dimensions of Health Institute

Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Dundee

Martyn’s research activities focus on understanding and changing behaviour in the work setting and in patient care. Research examining the impact of the work environment on staff well-being is being carried out in collaboration with Professor Derek Johnston at the School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen. This programme of research has included the screening of student nurses over a number of years; the development of a new measure of student nurse stress, SNSI; the development and evaluation of a stress management intervention set at an individual/interface level; the longitudinal analysis of the impact of "work climate" and managerial support on the physical and mental health of student nurses; the effects of curriculum innovation on student nurse well-being; the exploration of ambulatory methods of measuring work stress, and further developing the Student Nurse Stress Index. Further patient centred research explores the impact of patient information on management of febrile convulsion by parents, exercise promotion in people with severe/profound learning disabilities and challenging behaviour (CSO grant, 2001), the development of organisational/service level strategies to help clients with learning disabilities access health promotion/primary health care services (CSO grant, 2002), cross-sample validity of the Intensive Care Questionnaire (ICEQ) between two independent critical care settings, and a Randomised Controlled Trial comparing a self-Help cognitive behavioural programme (the Angina Plan) with standard practice for Angina patients admitted to hospital (CSO grant 2003).

Publications Successful Research Grants

School of Nursing & Midwifery
Universities of Dundee & St Andrews
Social Dimensions of Health Institute
11 Airlie Place

Dundee DD1 4HJ

Tel: 01382 388658

Joan Murphy

Clinical Research Fellow

Joan is the lead researcher in the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) research unit at the University of Stirling and has worked on a variety of research projects since 1989. Her particular field of interest is in finding ways of helping people with little or no speech to communicate in the most effective way and has developed a low-tech communication tool called Talking Mats®. In October 2005 Joan was appointed as Senior Clinical Research Fellow with the Alliance for Self Care Research part-time while still continuing to be based at the AAC Research Unit. Joan also works part-time as Senior Specialist Speech and Language Therapist with the Area Rehabilitation Service in Forth Valley, working as part of a multi-disciplinary team with adults with a range of physical difficulties including progressive neurological disorders, head injury, stroke and cerebral palsy.

Publications Successful Research Grants

AAC Research Unit
Dept of Psychology

University of Stirling

Stirling FK9 4LA
Tel: 01786 467644

Cindy Gray

Research Fellow

Cindy's PhD in cognitive psychology explored how people’s memory changes as they get older. This interest led to her becoming involved post-doctorally in a project examining communication with people with dementia. Since joining the Alliance, however, the focus of her research has changed completely. Cindy is now principally involved in projects on obesity and being overweight, and she is particularly interested in gender differences in weight management. Cindy is currently working on a project funded by Cancer Research UK grant to look how the terms commonly used to tell people their weight status might influence people’s motivation to lose weight.

Publications Successful Research Grants

Dept of Nursing & Midwifery
R.G. Bomont Building

University of Stirling

Stirling FK9 4LA
Tel: 01786 466401

Clare Dow

Research Fellow

Clare started with us in August 2005 having previously worked at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh. Clare's areas of research interests are self-management of chronic conditions with a particular interest in chronic pain and stroke. Clare has worked on the development of information resources for the DIPEx – Personal Experience of Health and Illness website (www.dipex.org) including a module on chronic pain and a module on stroke which is currently under development. She has an interest in exploring the service users' experiences and perspectives of self care and self management and is committed to the active involvement of service users in the development of research.

Publications

Dept of Nursing & Midwifery
R.G. Bomont Building

University of Stirling

Stirling FK9 4LA
Tel: 01786 466106

Anita Young

Clinical Research Fellow

Anita trained as an Occupational Therapist in the early eighties, and has spent the majority of her clinical career in the NHS Grampian Learning Disabilities Service. Her current post is Therapies Manager. Over the years Anita also has pursued a strong interest in clinical research, completing a higher research degree in 2002. She has completed a number of studies focusing on meaningful engagement of people with learning disabilities in sustaining optimal health. Currently she is seconded half time from the NHS to a clinical research post with the Alliance for Self Care Research, hosted in the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

Publications Successful Research Grants

Room 313 FHSC
The Robert Gordon University
Garthdee
Aberdeen AB10 7QG

Tel: 01224 263152

Debbie Baldie

Clinical Research Fellow

Debbie is a Senior Practice Development Nurse within NHS Tayside and currently studying towards a CSO funded PhD fellowship.

She has just completed a 3 year part-time secondment as a Clinical Research Fellow within the Alliance for Self Care Research. During her secondment she undertook a qualitative investigation into the information and support needs of individuals being discharged from hospital with mild to moderate community acquired pneumonia; contributed to a scoping review of the evidence of self care in diabetes and worked as a research fellow on an SDO funded project seeking to draw comparisons between the constructing and implementation of patients choice policies in the UK.

Her CSO funded fellowship is entitled “What scope is there to improve the use of patient experience feedback data for quality improvement in primary care?” It aims to explore how staff working within primary care perceive, and respond to different forms of patient experience feedback and is a continuation of Debbie’s 2 key areas of interest: patient involvement in health care and the complexities of appraising and using various forms of evidence in practice.

Debbie has worked as a nurse within the NHS for 22 years, working in a variety of clinical nursing posts before pursuing a career within quality improvement. She is currently the lead facilitator for implementing “Leading Better Care” and is working with others to support Senior Charge Nurses (SCN) to meet the requirements of the nationally revised role framework. This role framework recognises the SCN as the guarantor of care and provides them with support to gather patient experience and clinical standards data and use these in ways that enhance the patients care and experience.

Debbie’s ambition is to completed her PhD and beyond this, continue to work between the academic and practice settings in a clinical academic nursing role.

Publications Successful Research Grants

School of Nursing & Midwifery
Universities of Dundee & St Andrews
Social Dimensions of Health Institute
11 Airlie Place

Dundee DD1 4HJ

Tel: 01382 388658

Lorna Kerr