Tizard News and Events

We are currently offering a scholarship to PhD students interested in research in the areas of applied psychology, community care, intellectual and developmental disabilities or mental health.  We welcome applications concerning all aspects of community care, please refer to our website for the research expertise of our academic staff who are currently accepting new PhD students.

The deadline for applications is the 31 January 2016 with interviews being held early in February 2016.  For an informal discussion please contact Dr Michelle McCarthy on 01227 8279997.

For full terms and conditions that will need to be meet: https://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/studying/scholarships-and-bursaries/index.html?tab=postgraduate-research

Several of our members of staff and students will be attending this year’s Seattle Club Conference being held at Cardiff University 10 – 11 December 2015.  The event is open to any researcher based in the UK or Ireland who has new data relevant to the study of intellectual and developmental disabilities including those with backgrounds in psychology, psychiatry, sociology, special education and those with broad social sciences training.

Lisa Richardson & Agnes Turnpenny will be presenting a poster “Use of quality information in decision making about accommodation and support for people with intellectual disabilities and autism”.
Claire Bates will be presenting a paper “Sharing a basic human need to be loved – partner selection for people with intellectual disabilities”.
Leah Vanono “Preventing challenging behaviour by implementing the eight areas of social care model: bluebell grove case study”.

Dr Peter Baker, Senior Lecturer at the Tizard Centre, has raised over £700 for the CBF this summer taking place in the Prudential London to Surrey bike ride; a 100 mile route with some very testing climbs and stunning countryside.

Many congratulations to Peter on this acheivement.

We are delighted to announce that one of our PhD students, Marica Gatt has secured a place in the PRATO scholarships in Prato Italy July 2016.  These workshops are designed to support and facilitate publication by enhancing postgraduate writing skills.  The places are very competitive and this is a great achievement.

Many congratulations to Marica on her success.

“Mothers’ Views of the Communication Skills of Maltese Children who use AAC”.  Marica Gatt is a PhD student at the Tizard Centre as well as being Head of Department for Literacy (Ministry of Education, Malta) and a part-time lecturer at the University of Malta.  She recently presented her paper at a research stream.

A summary of the paper is available to read.

“Uncovering the staff culture of good quality supported accommodation for people with intellectual disabilities”

This research study is funded by the School for Social Care Research (SSCR) and is being carried out by Dr Julie Beadle-Brown, Dr Jill Bradshaw and Lisa Richardson from the Tizard Centre, University of Kent in collaboration with Prof Christine Bigby from the Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University Australia.

If you are a commissioner with responsibility for commissioning services or support for people learning disability or autism in the South East and are interested in being part of the advisory group for this study, please contact Julie Beadle-Brown (j.d.beadle-brown@kent.ac.uk). We anticipate 4 meetings of the advisory group over the 2 years of the project. Meetings will be held in London.

Background and Aims: Through the use of ethnographic and action research methods, Bigby et al in Australia have begun to conceptualise the informal culture of group homes. Currently the conceptualisation developed by Bigby et al has only been explored in poor and some better homes; as such there is a need to explore how well the framework applies to services that are providing skilled support delivering good quality of life outcomes for the people they support. Understanding staff culture in such settings will support the development of approaches to changing the culture in services and thus potentially improving quality of life outcomes.

Methods: The research will employ the following methods:

• Structured observations and staff completed measures to confirm the needs, characteristics and quality of life of the people supported and the quality of staff support provided
• A researcher conducting participant observations in three different supported accommodation settings over a 12 month period.
• Naturalistic and more formal interviews with staff and managers.
• Review of organisational documents, policies, procedures and mission statements.
• Interviews with senior management to establish their views of culture in supported accommodation settings and the wider organisation.

There will be three organisations taking part, each providing one supported accommodation setting for the focus of the research.

Analysis of field notes from participant observations and data collected from each organisation/setting will form three case studies. By including the multiple case studies from the work in Australia we will be able to look across all them all to determine the dimensions of culture for supported accommodation settings providing a range of outcomes.

Timeline and progress: We have ethical approval from the Social Care Research Ethics Committee and the project is starting to recruit services.  The fieldwork will take place over 12 months from January 2016.  During the final 9 months, the three case studies will be compared and implications for the conceptualisation of culture and its impact on the outcomes of people supported will be identified.

One of our PhD students, Hannah Newman, is looking is looking to recruit children who have been through a diagnostic assessment for autism in the past 12 months, to take part in a study looking at how assessing children in the Imagining Autism environment might be used to supplement and provide clarification to more formal clinical assessment environments. If you have or know a child who has been through a diagnostic assessment (irrespective of whether the diagnosis of autism was given) and who lives in East Kent then  get in touch. it is likely that we will have to expand recruitment outside of east Kent so if you live in any other part of Kent or in neighboring counties then please do let Hannah know if you are interested, contact email: hn55@kent.ac.uk

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The Tizard Centre, University of Kent offers additional scholarships and bursaries for students studying in the areas of applied psychology, community care, intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health, please see our web pages for full details

Applications are welcome for 2016 with the deadline date of 31 January 2016.  Interviews will be held at the Canterbury campus on 11 February 2016.  We welcome applications concerning all aspects of community care.  Please see the Tizard website for the research expertise of the academic staff who are currently accepting new PhD students.

The Jigsaw project (mcch) are continuing to implement recommendations made by the Living in Fear research group (Autism London, mcch, Tizard Centre and Kent Police) and have launched a new film about disability hate crime to aid educational work in schools.

Hidden Consequences follows 16 year old William as he faces bullying from pupils at school.  It shows how disability hate crime affects people and how it can stay with you for years to come.

This short film can be seen at Dickens World 1730 – 1930 hrs on Thursday 12 November 2015 where you can also learn more about the Jigsaw Project and Medway Youth Trust.

If you wish to attend please contact Charlotte Cook (c.cook@mcch.org.uk) or tel: 01622 722400.

On Thursday 22 October several Tizard Centre members presented at the CBF’s Conference in Ormskirk.  150 people from all over the UK attended the Conference.  Dr Nick Gore gave two workshops on the PBS competencies framework and Prof Glynis Murphy gave workshops on implementing NICE guidelines.  Leah Vanono PhD student at Tizard also presented her research poster, to view this see:  cbf_lv2015l