Research project

Title: Wheelchair Skills Programme for Young People

Project timescale: From 10 August, 2015 to 01 October, 2016
(Added to website on: 10 August, 2015 - Date last updated: 14 September, 2015)

Source of funding:
Other
Dept of Education and Learning-funded PhD project; Northern Trust Discretionary Fund

Aims:

The aim of the project is to explore the efficacy of a wheelchair skills programme for young people

Research designs used:
Other: Test-retest design

Methods used to collect data:
Validated instruments eg Outcome measures
Other (please specify): Wheelchair skills test

Research project description:

The project revolves around young wheelchair users and the access they have to current training. At the moment wheelchair skills training for young people in Northern Ireland is limited. External organisations are sought for implementing training from mainland UK. Northern Ireland's Regional Wheelchair Training Occupational Therapist (OT) has independently designed a wheelchair skills training programme, which can be implemented and graded to suit the clients' needs. The programme will be adapted and implemented as a standardised and measurable wheelchair skills test initially, with a training programme to follow. This will hopefully standardise the level of training being given to all young wheelchair users, and improve services across Northern Ireland.

From the outset parents of young wheelchair users have been vocal in the lack of services for their children. In 2008 the "Proposals for Reform of Wheelchair Services 2008" was created to establish a greater structure to enhance services for wheelchair users, which was greatly influenced by service users and parents alike. It is this document that has meant our project has the evidence base to proceed to further enhance services in areas where it is much needed.

Without the voice of members of the public, friends, family of service users, this project would not exist, therefore thanks must go to them for speaking up.

Stages at which the public were involved:
Prioritising topic areas
Planning the research
Managing the research
Designing the research instruments
(eg questionnaires, patient information sheets)
Other:

Description of public involvement in research stages:

Prior to the PhD commencing, parents were involved in identifying the greatest need for services and where they felt the NHS had let them down. These were then made a priority.

During the preparation of ethical application, documentation was prepared in the form of participant information sheets for both parents and children. Prior to gaining approval we sampled these information sheets with members of the public (children) to ensure the level of understanding would be suitable to participants we intend to recruit. I have also attended various wheelchair sports days across Northern Ireland, which have been run by Disability Sports NI. This provided me with the platform to speak to parents and gain their opinions of what services are available to their children at ground level and if there was anything they feel they would like to see included in future training days. This has allowed me to incorporate different aspects into our project based on their recommendations, such as running the project in different locations across Northern Ireland rather than in one location.

We plan a substantial number of dissemination days in the locations the studies were run to publicise the results from the study. We will encourage all our participants, their family and friends to attend for a fun-filled day with various sports activities on hand as well as results from the study available in the form of booklets/information books, etc. The current Minister for Health Simon Hamilton has also expressed his interest in attending the project at the testing stage and may attend one of the dissemination days we have planned.

Training and support provided for either members of the public or researchers involved in the project:

To date I have completed a substantial amount of research specific training through the university to ensure that the project is run to the highest standards. This included focus group training. I have also attended three days of formal training on administering the Wheelchair Skills Test, administered by Emma Regan (Occupational Therapist) with the involvement of service users, and attended three sports days for wheelchair users organised in conjunction with Emma Regan and Disability Sport NI. This provided me with the opportunity to meet service users and their parents, and also local OTs working with children in the area.

Examples of ways the public have made a difference to the research project:

Members of the public have:

• Voiced their concerns in relation to the lack of training available to their children. The project will implement a wheelchair skills programme which will be validated and standardised via this project and will be available to roll out to Occupational Therapists (OTs) to ensure a consistent standard of training is administered to all wheelchair users under the care of the Health and Social Care Trust.
• Voiced their concerns relating to the impact of the type of school their children attend. Many children who are wheelchair users attend mainstream school and miss out on any potential wheelchair skills that may be taught if they had attended a special needs school. As part of a questionnaire that will be administered during this study we have incorporated questions related to what type of school they attend. We will then analyse this data to see if there is any correlation between the status of school they attend and the amount of training received.

At the wheelchair skills training days, the involvement of service users who have used a chair all their lives has provided us with an in-depth and personal knowledge of barriers service users face on a daily basis. From listening to their needs we will incorporate these specific skills into our study, such as transferring in/out of a car.

Evaluating the impact of public involvement in the research:

Details of publications or reports resulting from the research:

Links to Reports:

Was/is your project user controlled: No

For further information on the project, please contact:
Ms Adrienne McCann
PhD Researcher
Ulster University
BT370QB
mccann-a18@email.ulster.ac.uk
07783225353

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