We are delighted to announce that Prof Glynis Murphy (Co-Director and Professor of Clinical Psychology & Disability at the Tizard Centre) has been appointed to the prestigious position of Chair of the NICE Guideline Development Group for Challenging Behaviour in People with Learning Disabilities. Prof Murphy was interviewed for the position by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, which is one of the four Centres within NICE.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) was established as a Special Health Authority for England and Wales on 1 April 1999. It is part of the NHS and provides authoritative and reliable guidance on healthcare for patients, healthcare professionals and the wider public. One of its core responsibilities is to produce clinical guidelines to improve the quality of clinical care. On 1 April 2005 NICE joined with the Health Development Agency to become the new National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

NICE guidelines are evidence-based, systematically developed statements that assist clinicians and patients in making decisions about appropriate healthcare for specific clinical circumstances. The advice contained must be derived from the best research evidence available using predetermined and internationally agreed methods, and including consideration of cost-effectiveness.

There are 4 professionally led National Collaborating Centres (NCCs) established to support the development and delivery of NICE guidelines, one of these being the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH). Established in 2001, the NCCMH is responsible for developing mental health guidelines, and is a partnership between the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and the British Psychological Society (BPS). The aims of guidelines looked at by the Groups (Centres) being to bring about genuine and lasting improvements in patient care

Guidelines are based on the best available research evidence. The NCCMH establishes a Guideline Development Group (GDG) for each guideline, consisting of health and social care professionals, lay representatives, and technical experts. The GDG develops each guideline by assessing the available evidence and deriving from it a series of clinical recommendations. Research recommendations are also developed which highlight gaps in the evidence to inform future research in this area.

For more information http://www.nccmh.org.uk/guidelines_methodology.html

Professor Ulf Schmidt, of the School of History, has been awarded £20,200 from the Wellcome Trust for an international conference on ‘Research Within Bounds: Protecting Human Participants in Modern Medicine – The Declaration of Helsinki, 1964-2014’ in Switzerland on 12/13 September 2013.

The aim of the Symposium, which Professor Schmidt is jointly organising with colleagues from Germany and Switzerland, is to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Helsinki by the World Medical Association (WMA), one of the most important landmarks in biomedical research ethics.

By bringing together leading world experts from the medical humanities, biomedicine, the medical sciences, bioethics and health law, including keynote speakers who served on President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the Symposium will reflect upon and critically examine our current global regulatory system which is aimed at protecting experimental participants in developed and developing countries.

Imagining Autism, a pioneering research project led by the University of Kent to investigate how drama-based activities may play a key role in helping autistic children’s development has reported preliminary success at a special milestone event.

The 30 month research project, funded by a 350k grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), involves undertaking a series of immersive, play-based methods and improvisation, puppetry, physical performance and interactive digital technologies with autistic children in multisensory environments – portable tent like structures.

The project is a collaboration between staff from the University of Kent’s School of Arts, School of Psychology and Tizard Centre, as well as support from the University’s Gulbenkian Theatre.

Imagining Autism shared some of its findings at a dedicated event to mark the end of the practical phase of interventions. Held on 11 December at the Helen Allison School, one of three special schools in Kent involved in the project, the event was attended by over 50 invited guests, including teachers and families associated with the work, as well as professionals from health, education and the arts.

The event enabled the research team to demonstrate the methods used during the research, including an experience of ‘Outer Space’, one of the five sensory environments designed for the project. The environments allow the children to encounter a range of stimuli and respond to triggers, created through lighting, sound or physical action. Using performers in each of the environments, the work is designed to promote communication, socialization, playful interaction and creative engagement, encouraging participants to find new ways of connecting with the world around them. Researchers from the project are investigating whether this experience enhances language, social interaction, empathy and imagination, three areas identified as deficits in autism.

Principal researcher, Nicola Shaughnessy, said: ‘The practical work has been incredibly exciting and has led to some unexpected outcomes such as insights into the unusual imagination, perception and humour in autism. As a collaboration between arts and science, we are also developing new ways of working across subject areas as well as new approaches to training for work of this kind.

‘We have been overwhelmed by the positive responses we’ve had to the work from schools and families and it is the breakthrough moments with the individual children which make this project so rewarding.’

The event featured presentations from the research team, led by Professor Nicola Shaughnessy and Dr Melissa Trimingham from the University’s School of Arts, who explained the practical methods and processes involved, whilst Dr Julie Beadle-Brown of Kent’s Tizard Centre also spoke about the evaluation measures being used.

Presentations from Victoria Scott, an educational psychologist based at the Helen Allison School, reported her perceptions of the impact of the project and a testimonial from a parent whose child has been participating was also featured. The parent spoke about the transformation she has seen in her child’s behaviour and communication since the interventions started, describing it as “a little miracle”.

The research will now enter its final phase where results will be analysed by Dr Julie Beadle-Brown and Dr David Wilkinson from the University’s School of Psychology to see if the practical interventions have made a difference to the children through a range of tests undertaken before and after the practical phase.

The project’s innovative methods, which differ from more conventional skills-based and behavioural approaches, have attracted international interest resulting in Kent’s drama researchers undertaking presentations in the USA. The project will also be featured at the National Autistic Society’s annual conference in the UK in March.

It is hoped that the results from the research could lead to a full-scale trial and may also prompt changes in approaches to other communication disorders in children.

For more information on the project, visit www.imaginingautism.org.

Professor Stephen Peckham, Director of the University’s Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS), has been closely involved in the first in-depth study into how the government’s planned shake-up of the NHS next year is progressing.

Professor Peckham is Director of the Policy Research Unit in Commissioning and the Healthcare System (PRUComm), which provides evidence to the Department of Health to inform the development of policy on commissioning. It is collaboration between the University of Kent, the University of Manchester and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The reorganisation of the NHS in England, which will see new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) – led by GPs – take responsibility for spending some £60 billion of public money, has generated much debate and discussion over the last two years. These groups were established during 2012 and have been preparing their organisations and plans ready to take on their new functions from next April.

The Department of Health-funded PRUComm researched these developments and published its first major report about the early development of CCGs on 16 November. The research was led by Dr Kath Checkland, of the University of Manchester.

Professor Peckham said: ‘This study provides a comprehensive look at what is happening as the most significant NHS reorganisation in a generation unfolds.’

Professor Peckham joined the University of Kent as CHSS Director earlier this year. CHSS is part of the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.

Volunteers are being sought to help test the effectiveness of a potential cure for migraine headache.

More information can be found on the University news article.

The University of Kent has attracted research funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) worth nearly £1.7 million over the last fifteen months.

Research projects being undertaken at the University funded by the NIHR include a project to study the prevention of challenging behavior of adults with complex needs in supported accommodation and research into adult social service environments.

Professor Peter Jeffries, Director of KentHealth, the University’s one-stop-shop for health and social care expertise in research, training, innovation and partnerships with the regional NHS, welcomed the funding.

He said: ‘The high level of research funding from the NIHR over the last 15 months highlights our success in building partnerships with the NHS.

‘We have a range of important projects being undertaken across a number of our discipline areas within the University, which demonstrates the breadth of our expertise in health-related fields.

‘We will continue to work to build partnerships with health-related agencies and organisations across the region and I’m sure will achieve further success in attracting funding.’

For further information or interview requests contact Martin Herrema at the University of Kent

Tel: 01227 823581

Email: M.J.Herrema@kent.ac.uk