A new interdisciplinary research project has received external funding from a prestigious funding body to develop an innovative eHealth checklist designed to improve communication practices for patients with intellectual disabilities. The British Academy-funded project is led by Dr Genevieve Breau, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, with Dr Calvin Burns, Associate Professor in Industrial-Organisational Psychology, a co-investigator with expertise in communication and trust in relation to patient outcomes in hospitals.
As part of the project, Dr Breau and Dr Burns will run focus groups with individuals with intellectual disabilities to better understand patient experience of communications with healthcare providers. Focus groups will be supported by self-advocacy groups that support people with intellectual disabilites in the local community. Knowledge around best practices for patient-provider communication in a range of settings will be also co-produced with advocacy groups.
The project is an international collaboration, with partners in France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Cyprus, New Zealand, USA and Poland. A future bid on patient-provider communication practices for people with intellectual disabilities is planned for submission to the European Union’s core research and innovation funding programme, Horizon Europe. Dr Breau is Programme Lead on our new programme BSc (Hons) Mental Health and Wellbeing, and Dr Burns teaches on our MSc in Occupational Psychology, in the School of Human Sciences.