SPARC research cluster has been successful in securing research income

Researchers in SPARC research cluster has been successful in securing income from two local organisations to undertaken research linked to their ‘Wellbeing’ theme.


Caroline White, Jane Wray, Liz Walker and Clare Whitfield have been awarded £9, 775.31 from Pickering and Ferens Homes (PFH) to explore the impact of an innovative new service. The Interchange Scheme offers older people the opportunity to experience what it’s like to live in a PFH Retirement apartment for a short time without making any commitment. Older people will be able to spend up to three weeks at one of two locations with full access to all the PFH services. Interviews will be conducted with people who access the scheme, and their families to explore their experiences and decision making in relation to future planning. The project will be completed in July 2021

Jane Wray, Caroline White and Liz Walker have been awarded funding from Hull City Council £7508.55 to investigate the impact of seven day working for their social care / social work workforce on patient discharge and on working lives. Analysis of discharge data alongside staff focus groups will be undertaken with three teams across the area. The purpose of the research is to establish the level and type of work undertaken within each team, understand the overall effectiveness of seven day working and identify barriers in the system to patient discharge. The study will be completed in July 2021.

SPARC seminar: Experiences of carers of people with long term conditions

Caroline White writes:

A SPARC research event held on 2 May 2019 explored the experiences of carers (partners, family and friends) of people with long term conditions. The event introduced recent research conducted by staff within the Faculty of Health Sciences and HYMS, and facilitated a discussion of future research needs and knowledge gaps in this area. It was attended by University of Hull researchers, social care practitioners and carers.

Presentations focused on carers who support:

• People living with rheumatoid arthritis (Paul Whybrow)
• People with mental health needs in acute mental health settings (Jane Wray)
• People with lung cancer (Paula Gawthorpe)
• Relatives or friends living at a distance (Caroline White and Clare Whitfield)

A presentation on the potential role of technology in supporting carers to maintain contact with relatives living in care homes was also given (Sonam Zamir, University of Plymouth). A follow up seminar to further explore future research directions is planned.

The Distance Caring Project

People with long-term conditions may receive help, support or care from a relative or friend. Carers have been the subject of much research and policy development, however, there appears to have been an assumption that most carers live with or close to the person they support.

Members of SPARC (Caroline White, Jane Wray and Clare Whitfield) have recently conducted an exploratory study of the experiences of people who provide help, care and support from a distance. They suggest that ‘distance carers’ are an important group who are increasing in number and face specific and distinct challenges whilst providing significant amounts of support. They argue that this particular group should in future be considered in discussions of carers’ needs.

A report summarising their main findings is available Distance Caring -Final Report October 2018

SPARC – PhD Scholarships

Bridging the Divide: Living with Multimorbidity

We were recently successful in the University PhD scholarship scheme competition where we were awarded three scholarships which will focus on the experience of living with multiple health conditions.  We have identified the following three areas:  Multimorbidity where dementia is one of the conditions; Multimorbidity in mid-life where mental health is implicated and the embodied experience of living with multiple conditions. We can now advertise our three scholarships:

We are aiming to recruit from a wide field of possible candidates, please distribute our advert to your networks as you feel appropriate.  

News from SPARC

We are pleased to have been successful in the recent PhD scholarships scheme competition. Prof Liz Walker, supported by the team, pitched for three scholarships which will focus on the experience of living with multiple health conditions. The research cluster will prioritise the collection of voices of people living with multimorboidity and their families and carers, through drawing on the collaborative and collective practice, diverse expertise and research experience of the team in gathering and understanding people’s stories and narratives around illness, long-term conditions and, crucially, their intersection.

We will be recruiting from what we hope will be a wide field of possible candidates in the next few weeks, so please keep an eye out for communications from SPARC and the Graduate School and distribute to your networks as you feel appropriate.