Resources: Blogs

From Complexity to Capability: What Systems Thinking Can Teach Us About Implementation

From complexity to capability: In this blog post, Kristian Hudson, YHARC Implementation Specialist's recent podcast conversation with Professor Harvey Maylor explores how embracing uncertainty and the interconnectedness of real-world systems – core tenets of complexity science – can revolutionise implementation science. We dive into practical applications and how to shift systems towards better outcomes.

Mental Health

Bridging the Loneliness Gap: How Social Support and Natural Environments Impact Mental Wellbeing in people with SMI and Multiple Diagnoses

Loneliness is a significant public health issue that affects millions of people worldwide. Governments and researchers alike are increasingly focusing on strategies to address it, especially for those with severe mental illness (SMI) or multiple health conditions (multimorbidity). Our recent research, conducted using UK Biobank data, sheds light on how different factors—such as social support, leisure activities, and proximity to natural spaces—affect loneliness in these specific groups of people.

Health Economics

A national evaluation of the project Cautioning And Relationship Abuse (CARA) awareness raising workshops for first time offenders of domestic violence and abuse (DVA): Economic analysis

This blog summarises the results of an economic analysis of project CARA for first time offenders for seven police force areas in the UK.

Improvement Science

Putting staff wellbeing at the heart of policy, practice, and research

Health and social care services in the UK rely, fundamentally, on the staff who offer, manage, and support them, whether that’s the catering staff who provide food and drink to patients, the social workers who protect vulnerable people, or the surgeons who perform life-saving operations.

Older People

Mitigating dementia risks: Do people from Black African-Caribbean communities see social isolation and loneliness as public health concerns?

Dementia is a complex disease that poses significant challenges to society. There is increasing evidence that there are some modifiable risk factors associated with risk of dementia. Public health campaigns are promoting risk reduction. However, it is important to understand individual’s understanding of and attitudes towards these risk factors.

Urgent Care

How often are children attending the emergency department for a non-urgent attendance?

In this study, we aimed to explore differences in non-urgent attendances and urgent attendances in children to ED and determine which children present in this way and when.

Healthy Families

Creating Playful Urban Spaces: Lessons from Bradford

In today's rapidly urbanising world, ensuring children have access to safe and appealing play spaces is crucial for their health, wellbeing, and development. However, opportunities for outdoor play in urban areas have declined in recent years, and access remains unequal.

Older People

Digital exclusion of older people

We have received a far better response to a survey than we expected. Now there’s a sentence that no researcher ever really expects to write! In March 2024 the INCLUDE study sent a survey to nearly 6,000 older people in North and West Yorkshire, asking about their use and experiences of the internet. Half of those recipients returned completed surveys, far exceeding the response rate we expected.

Improvement Science

What are ‘avoidable emergency transfers of care’ and what do care home residents, their families and staff involved in transfers suggest to reduce them?

In England, care home residents are disproportionately likely to attend A&E departments compared to other older people. Attendance has risks, including hospital-acquired infections and deterioration in residents’ health. It also increases pressures on hospitals and demand for beds.

Urgent Care

A mixed methods evaluation of the impact of frailty and respiratory virtual wards in South Yorkshire

High demand for hospital care is placing increasing strain on emergency services. Recent statistics have shown that over 95% of hospital beds are consistently filled. High bed occupancy reduces the smooth flow of patients through hospitals, contributing to crowding in A&Es and causing ambulances to queue outside departments unable to respond to 999 calls.

Mental Health

Reflections on becoming a lived-experience academic mental health researcher.

In this blog, Ruth Naughton-Doe shares experiences of becomming a lived-experience academic mental health researcher aiming to improve support for new parents.

Implementation

De-implementation will be vital if we are going to sustain our health systems but that would require changing how we think about safety and implementation

In this blog Kristian Hudson interviews Robyn Clay-Williams, a Professor of Human Factors, exploring de-implementation and patient safety.