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Older People in Research: a case study from the London Primary Care Studies Programme

2006 Conference

This paper aims to share the experience and reflections of involving older people in one clinical research project.

The London Primary Care Programme (2000-2004) funded 11 research projects with the explicit brief to involve consumers in the research. The Identifying Unmet Needs (later the SPICE) study was one of these. The aim of the research was to develop a valid and reliable tool for identifying unmet needs in older people as part of usual consultations in general practice, as required by the National Service Framework for older people (DoH 2001).

In this paper we will describe:

  • The research project.
  • The older persons contribution on the research team, as co-researchers and in consultations to shape the research.
  • The benefits and challenges identified through the evaluation processes internal to the project. We will also draw on an external evaluation of the 11 London Primary Care Programme by Peninsula University.
  • How the learning from one clinical research project has been translated to other projects and discuss the challenges of this.
  • We will invite dialogue and commentary on other experiences of involving older people in clinical research.

Authors

Drennan ~ Vari

Director of the Primary Care Nursing Research Unit, UCL & KCL. Vari Drennan is a primary care and public health nurse and researcher. She has undertaken research into providing primary health care services to older people since the mid-eighties. She has explored and written about community development approaches in the provision of public health nursing. She is currently Director of the Primary Care Nursing Research Unit, UCL and KCL, London

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Myerson ~ Sybil

Honorary Research Fellow, Dept. of Primary Care & Populations Sciences, Royal Free & University College London Medical SchoolThe Identifying Unmet Needs (Spice) Research Team lnbrSybil Myerson is a medical sociologist teaching medical students on stress in health professionals and stress management. She has published papers on stress in GPs, particularly women GPs. She is currently researching issues of depression in GPs through the interface of art and science.

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