Coordinator: Dr Brian Taylor

Community Care Research Cluster

The focus in this research cluster is on the mental health and social care of adults. Studies undertaken are responsive to the needs of the Health and Social Care service as well as the interests of staff and prospective research students. The main strands within the cluster at present are in areas such as:

• Mental health
• Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder across client groups and needs
• Care pathways, recovery and psycho-social factors in mental disorder
• Social Work and statutory functions with people with mental disorder
• Older people
• Development of a single assessment tool for health and social care needs
• Risk and decision making about long term care
• Professional judgement in elder abuse       
• General
• Families, care-giving and support for carers
• Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey
• Community development, health promotion, and social implications of benefits systems and housing schemes
• Drug and alcohol abuse amongst young people
• Treatment interventions with prisoners with substance abuse problems.

 

Evidence Based Practice Research Cluster

The focus in this research cluster is on the effectiveness of social care interventions. This supports professional Social Workers, policy makers and managers of social care services in creating, reviewing and applying robust evidence so as to inform practice and policy decisions most effectively. Current project areas include:

• Randomised Controlled Trial of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Effectiveness of electronic databases for retrieving relevant research
• Systematic Reviewing as part of the Cochrane Collaboration and the development of methods appropriate to qualitative research
• The relationship between evidence, risk, decision making and governance in social care and criminal justice services
• Qualitative and quantitative studies to inform Social Work practice
• Service evaluations support health and care service improvement projects
• The development of assessment tools to support practice
• Developments in social work education based on best evidence

Funding for research currently comes from such sources as ESRC, SCIE, DHSSPS R&D Office, NIO, and the NI Centre for Trauma and Rehabilitation, as well as a wide range of voluntary and private charitable organisations involved in social welfare.