Evaluation of the Warrington district CAB GP outreach project

This project report discusses the Warrington district CAB GP outreach project. The project was developed to limit the impact that social deprivation problems may have on health.Warrington Primary Care Trus

A small-scale study of disabled parents' experiences of local services in Cheshire

This report is available through Chester Digital Repository.This report discusses the experience of disabled parents in Cheshire in order to represent diabled parents' perspectives on using local services and can inform local providers and advocacy groups on the strenghts and weaknesses of local provision.The report was commissed by the Cheshire Disabilities Federation and funded by the Cheshire Children's Fund

Examination of the Warrington Falls Management and Prevention Service

This report discusses the Warrington Falls Management and Prevention Service. For older people, falls have a number of significant negative physical, social and psychological consequences including self-imposed restricted mobility, fall phobia and fractures. In evaluating the Warrington Falls Management and Prevention Service, the report focuses on changes in functional performance and mobility levels among clients as a result of taking part in an exercise programme, clients' awareness of the multi-factorial risks associated with falls and the extent to which social isolation of the elderly was addressed by the service.Warrington Primary Care Trus

Evaluation of the Paediatric Home-based Palliative Care Service

Copyright © Centre for Public Health Research, University of ChesterPalliative care has been recognised as a medical speciality since 1987 (Hynson & Sawyer, 2001). However, it remains relatively underdeveloped in the paediatric setting, and there has been little research carried out in the area. One reason for this may be the nature and challenge of surveying caretakers about a highly emotive and painful subject (Hynson & Sawyer, 2001). However, as Dangel, Fowler-Kerry, Karwacki, and Bereda (2000) suggest, ongoing programme evaluation is a necessary component to improve the quality of service delivery. Research is required in all aspects of palliative care in order to ensure that this relatively new speciality can move forward from an anecdotal basis to one that has a sound evidence base (Twycross & Dunn, 1994). The most distinctive feature of palliative care is its divergence from most other types of medical care: the aims are different to that of curative care and thus create different priorities. Palliative care focuses on relieving pain or the symptoms of a disease or disorder without effecting a cure (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2005). As such palliative care aims to preserve normality as far as possible; for the great majority of children and young people, this means delivering care in the home (Watterson & Hain, 2003). In this setting, parents play a key role in decision making as they are involved in the day-to-day management of their child's symptoms (Dangel et al., 2000)

The factors that affect local authority use of adult social care and carers survey data

The second in a series of three blogs produced by the MAX project team which summarises the preliminary findings from an online survey conducted with local authority staff associated with the Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) and Personal Social Services Survey of Adult Carers in England (PSS SACE or Carers’ Survey)

Emerging themes and provisional ideas for how the toolkits developed during the MAX project can help local authorities maximise the use of data in adult social care

The third in a series of three blogs produced by the MAX project team which summarises the preliminary findings from an online survey conducted with local authority staff associated with the Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) and Personal Social Services Survey of Adult Carers in England (PSS SACE or Carers’ Survey)

Local authority views and use of the adult social care and carers survey

The first in a series of three blogs produced by the MAX project team which summarises the preliminary findings from an online survey conducted with local authority staff associated with the Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS) and Personal Social Services Survey of Adult Carers in England (PSS SACE or Carers’ Survey

Developing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT)

Background: This paper reports the experiences of developing and pre-testing an Easy Read version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) for self-report by people with intellectual disabilities. Method: The study has combined survey development and pre-testing methods with approaches to create accessible information for people with intellectual disabilities. A working group assisted researchers in identifying appropriate question formats, pictures and wording. Focus groups and cognitive interviews were conducted to test various iterations of the instrument. Results: Substantial changes were made to the questionnaire, which included changes to illustrations, the wording of question stems and response options. Conclusions: The process demonstrated the benefits of involving people with intellectual disabilities in the design and testing of data collection instruments. Adequately adapted questionnaires can be useful tools to collect information from people with intellectual disabilities in survey research; however its limitations must be recognised