Health and Social Well-being in Long Term Conditions research

This strand of our research is concerned with social, physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as the development of social networks and approaches to improving social isolation, often experienced by people living with long term conditions.

This includes an interest in innovative and creative approaches to improving wellbeing, such as the use of music and other arts- based interventions.

Projects
Study	Full title	Type	Area	Funder
STROKESTRA™	STROKESTRA™: A Research Project to Explore the Implementation and Impact of a Post-stroke Orchestral Rehabilitation Programme (2019-2021)	Mixed Methods	Music and stroke rehabilitation	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra SEMPRE
Taking on the World Four Strings at a Time		Ethnographic study Qualitative interviews	Community music making Social isolation	HEIF
Transitions to Sheltered Housing	Transitions to Sheltered Housing: Experiences of taking part in the Interchange Scheme	Case study methodology Qualitative interviews	Older people, housing, transitions	Pickering and Ferens Homes
Service evaluation of young people’s mental health	Healthy Mind Healthy You	Survey Qualitative interviews	Young People’s Mental Health and Well-being	Hull NHS Clinical Commissioning Group
Suicide postvention and social media		Survey Qualitative interviews	Death, Dying and Bereavement / Suicide Prevention	Impact Acceleration Fund
About Face	About Face: Experiences of Dental Reconstruction	Survey Qualitative interviews	Dentistry; dental reconstruction	British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
Video games as self-care

STROKESTRA™

A Research Project to Explore the Implementation and Impact of a Post-stroke Orchestral Rehabilitation Programme

The experience of stroke can have a profound impact physically, psychologically and socially, for those who have experienced a stroke and their family carers. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in partnership with Hull and East Riding Community Stroke Service, has developed an innovative rehabilitation programme which uses group music-making activities facilitated by musicians and clinicians to provide a holistic form of therapy for stroke patients and carers. This research project, jointly undertaken by researchers from SPARC and the Department of Music, will explore the strategies used to deliver the programme as well as the experiences and impacts of participation for stroke patients and carers.

More information

AIMS

This project will explore the experiences of participants (stroke patients and carers) of taking part in the programme, and identify how professional musicians, clinicians and staff work together to facilitate musical workshops and deliver the STROKESTRA™ programme in community and care home settings.

Information about the Strokestra Programme is available at the Royal Philharmonic Website.

FUNDED BY

The project is funded and trademarked by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and is also funded by SEMPRE (Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research).

Project team

PROJECT TEAM

Elaine King (Department of Music) - Principal Investigator (PI)

Helen Prior (Department of Music)

Caroline White

Helen Gibson

CONTACT

Dr Elaine King: e.c.king@hull.ac.uk

Taking on the World Four Strings at a Time

Taking on the World, Four Strings at a Time focused on using community music making as a tool for identifying and addressing issues of older people’s social isolation and engagement. Findings from the year-long pilot project (The Silver Strings Older People’s Ukulele Orchestra) suggest that making music together has powerful and lasting positive effects on physical and mental health, particularly in terms of combating loneliness and isolation for both players and audiences.

We hope to be able to extend the project to enable more people to benefit from the work.

More information

You can watch part of the Silver Strings’ first public performance here.

AIMS

To explore the experience of participating in community music making among older people, especially in respect of social connections.

Contact

Dr Liz Price E. Price@hull.ac.uk

Funded by

HEIF

Project team

PROJECT TEAM

Liz Price – University of Hull

Carol Burton

Transitions to Sheltered Housing: Experiences of taking part in the Interchange Scheme

The move to sheltered housing may be a significant transition for older people. This study will explore the experiences of older people who have participated in a trial visit scheme introduced by a housing provider, and those of their family carers. Case study methodology will be used to explore their experiences during the trial visit, and how this affects their decision making about future accommodation in the immediate aftermath of the trial visit, with follow up data collection approximately three months after the visit.

More information

Aims

This research will explore the experiences of older people and families of a scheme offering trial visits to sheltered housing provision. It will explore older people’s and carers’ experiences and perceptions of the scheme, and whether the opportunity for a trial visit facilitates timely decision making about future accommodation.

Funded by

This project is funded by Pickering and Ferens Homes

Project team

PROJECT TEAM

CONTACT

Caroline White - c.white@hull.ac.uk

Service evaluation of young people’s mental health

‘Healthy Mind, Healthy You’ is an innovative new five step education programme. The project will work with young people, their families and schools to promote positive mental health, early intervention and reduce the stigma associated with mental health, particularly mental ill health.

More information

Healthy Mind Healthy You is an interactive, participatory programme that is delivered by Hull Kingston Rovers mental health ambassadors and Paul Spence from P.A.U.L For Brain Recovery. It involves a year group assembly, classroom sessions, activity sessions (Rugby League, Dance, Urban Arts), ‘How to Help my Young Person’ (for parents, teachers and guardians) and a mentoring program. The project team will work with local schools and the ‘Healthy Mind – Healthy You’ delivery team to measure impact on the young people accessing the services and to ensure embedding of evaluation, monitoring and outcome data.

Project team

Jo Bell

Jane Wray

Suicide postvention and social media

This project supports a series of workshops that bring together those with lived experience of suicide as well as experts, practitioners and first responders who work in postvention (i.e. care after suicide) services. Based on our established body of research on suicide-related internet use and suicide bereavement, workshops will focus on the uniqueness of suicide bereavement and the impact/implications of social media use in the aftermath of a suicide. Practitioners will take away new evidence-based knowledge of the positive and negative effects of social media practices following a suicide, enabling them to change their policy and practice in ways that will reduce risk of increased distress and promote recovery of the affected community. Impact of the workshops on practice will be evaluated via interviews, focus groups discussions and an online survey.

More information

Aims

Attendees will take away new evidence-based knowledge of:

The uniqueness of suicide bereavement
Harmful and protective effects of social media use in the aftermath of a suicide
How social media use can be harnessed to manage trauma, alleviate grief and reach those who need support

An evaluation of the workshops and exploring their impact on practice is being conducted.

Funded by

This project is funded by Humber Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership.

Outputs

Bell, J. and Westoby, C. (2021) Suicide Exposure in a Polymediated Age. Frontiers in Psychology

Bell, J. and Westoby, C. (2021) The aftermath of a suicide: social media exposure and implications for postvention. Suicide Risk Assessment and Prevention. p1-16.

Bell, J. (2018) How the internet is changing the way we grieve. The conversation.

Bell, J., and Bailey, L. (2017). The use of Facebook in the aftermath of a suicide in Niederkrotenthaler, T., and Stack, S. Suicide and the Media: International Perspectives on Research, Theory and Policy: Hogrefe Publishing.

Bell, J., Bailey, L., and Kennedy, D. (2015). “We do it to keep him alive”: Bereaved Individuals’ Experiences of Online Suicide Memorials and Continuing Bonds, Mortality, 20 (4), 376-389. DOI:10.1080/13576275.2015.1083693.

Bell, J., Stanley, N., Mallon, S., and Manthorpe, J. (2015). Narratives of Suicide Contagion: Insights on processes and mechanisms from young people bereaved by suicide. Suicidology Online, 6, 1, 43-52.

Bailey, L., Bell, J., and Kennedy, D. (2014). Continuing social presence of the dead: Exploring Suicide Bereavement through Online Memorialisation. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia.

Bell, J., Stanley, N., Mallon, S., and Manthorpe, J. (2012). Life Will Never be The Same Again: Examining Grief in Survivors Bereaved by Young Suicide. Illness, Crisis, and Loss, 20, 1, 49-68.

Bell, J. and Westoby, C. (2021) Suicide Exposure in a Polymediated Age. Frontiers in Psychology

Project team

Jo Bell

Christopher Westoby

Fiona Earle

CONTACT

Dr Jo Bell – j.bell@hull.ac.uk

About Face: Experiences of Dental Reconstruction

This small scale project aims to invigorate a conversation around the sociology of contemporary dentistry, which has moved inexorably on from a focus on preventive, responsive, dentistry to a dentistry which is bound up in the contemporary reflexive body project.

More information

The project foregrounds the centrality of the mouth in daily experience and the exquisite quality of contemporary shame that is associated with poor dentition. Findings speak, in particular, to the notion of dental intervention as significant biographical disruption and to the ongoing biographical work and the continuing assimilation and re-creation of the disrupted self that is at the centre of contemporary bodily reinvention and reconstruction.

The project has led to a further investigation (funded by the University of Hull Faculty Research Development Fund) into the dental experiences of people living with long term conditions

Aims

To develop a conversation about contemporary dentistry and the lived experience of dental reconstruction.

Funded by

British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry

Project team

Liz Price

Dr Donald Sloss at Dental Excellence Harewood

CONTACT

Dr Liz Price – e.price@hull.ac.uk

Video games as self care

In the context of COVID-19, more young people are staying at home, socialising at home, learning at home, and playing video games. They’re managing a loss of normality, a loss of social connections, a loss of their ‘youth’, and the loss of loved ones. They’re dealing with grief, bereavement, anxiety of the threat of loss, and their own new-found responsibility for their elder or vulnerable relatives’ mortality.

Video games can provide players with a sense of achievement, the ability to build or reside in immersive, custom worlds, tell and experience detailed stories, interact with peers in a socially distanced way, or just be a welcome distraction. We explore the role of video games as therapeutic, social, and educational tools for coping, using the mixed-method approach of a qualitative/quantitative survey and Interactive Elicitation, a ‘play interview where participants interact with games and discuss their use.

More information

As well as academic outcomes, this project yields a toolkit for industry producers looking at changes and enhancements to content design emerging from COVID-19, ways to better understand audiences and users, and ways to maximise reach of digital and creative content. Additionally, it speaks to educators – providing a framework to better utilise interactive games in communicating with young or anxious audiences.

This project is funded through SIGN’s Collaborative Research Grants scheme.

Project team

Dr Jo Bell (University of Hull)

Dr Matthew Spokes (York St John University)

Dr Jack Denham (York St John University)

Matt Coward-Gibbs (University of York)

Dr Julie Ellis (University of Huddersfield)

Contact

j.bell@hull.ac.uk

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