The University of Nottingham has become the first university in the country to be awarded the coveted Athena Swan Gold Award for its commitment to advance gender equality across higher education and research.

Individual departments have previously successfully gained Gold level awards, but this is the first time that an institutional Gold Award has been made in the 18 years since the Athena Swan Charter was launched to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, maths and medicine (STEMM), in higher education and research. 

The University of Nottingham was one of the first institutions to join the Charter and was awarded an Athena Swan Institutional Bronze Award in 2006, and later went on to achieve an Institutional Silver Award in 2012, and the Institutional Renewal in 2017/2018.

Katherine Linehan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and People, and Professor of Anatomical Education, said: “I am incredibly proud that the university has achieved an institutional Gold Award. Doing so requires an organisation to demonstrate progress with regard to gender equality over a sustained period and evidence of influence and the support of others through beacon activities.

“This has taken a huge effort from many people, often women, at the university over the past 18 years and this award is a sector and public acknowledgement of the impact of their work.”

To achieve Gold, the independent review panel said the University of Nottingham demonstrated strong evidence of success in promoting and improving gender equality institution wide. The panel was particularly impressed by the university leading work across Nottinghamshire to diversify the workforce in all anchor employers in the region, including NHS recruitment, building on research on gendered language and recruitment practices.

Alison Johns, Chief Executive of Advance HE, said, “I am delighted to announce that the University of Nottingham is the first university in the UK to achieve Athena Swan Gold.

“The Gold Award recognises the quality and impact of equality, diversity and inclusion achievements not only within the university, but also the leadership and support that the University of Nottingham has provided both inside and outside of the sector to help raise the bar in gender equity practice.

“To receive an institutional Gold Award is a massive achievement and recognises the dedication and commitment of so many who have worked unstintingly to deliver on gender equality across the whole institution. Our congratulations go to Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West, her team, and all colleagues at the University of Nottingham on this prestigious award.”

In May 2015, the charter was expanded to recognise work undertaken in arts, humanities, social sciences, business and law (AHSSBL), and in professional and support roles, and for trans staff and students.

The charter now recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.

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In IntoUniversity’s 20th anniversary year, Pete Bruce, Head of Student Recruitment Outreach in the university’s Widening Participation and Outreach team, looks at the impact that its partnership with the University of Nottingham has had on helping to build confidence, raise the aspirations and positively impact on the long term futures of young people in some of the city’s most challenged communities.

“We believe that universities and colleges can benefit from closer working with schools and charities to address the persistent gap in participation and success between those from the most advantaged backgrounds and their more disadvantaged peers.”

These was how John Blake, Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students, introduced the launch of the consultation on the new approach to regulating equality of opportunity in higher education back in October last year. This consultation led to the creation of the new Equality of Opportunity Risk Register and a new framework for the Access and Participation Plans which set out how higher education providers will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups to access, succeed in and progress from higher education.

Just eight months earlier, the University of Nottingham had celebrated 10 years of partnership with IntoUniversity, a national education charity which runs an innovative programme supporting young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods to attain their chosen aspiration. Now with nearly 40 centres throughout the UK, IntoUniversity has grown in both scope and reputation to become a leading third sector organisation in its field. IntoUniversity (currently celebrating its 20 year anniversary) operates a centre-based model and its programme includes after-school Academic Support sessions that help young people to become curious and independent learners; the FOCUS programme which opens young people’s minds to the power of education to transform their lives; and the Mentoring programme which provides students with one-to-one support from a role model who can offer invaluable guidance. Here in Nottingham the Widening Participation and Outreach team has also developed a bespoke family learning programme in conjunction with IntoUniversity.

At the University of Nottingham, we are incredibly proud to support IntoUniversity’s work which is based in learning centres serving three of our communities – St Ann’s, Hyson Green and the Broxtowe estate, all in constituencies where child poverty rates are particularly high. Over the course of this partnership so far, more than 17,000 local young people have received support from IntoUniversity and encouragement to do well at school and go on to university or another chosen ambition.

Building confidence

But what does this all mean on the ground? Well, let me tell you about a young person in Nottingham – we’ll call her Halima – not her real name. Back in 2015, when Halima started in Year 7, she had the dubious pleasure of having me as her German teacher. She was possibly one of the quietest and least confident students I have ever taught. While she always got her work done and did it well, she would never offer an answer in class and if ever I directed a question to her, she always looked as if she wanted the ground to swallow her up.

However, as the year went on, I observed Halima gradually gaining confidence and really finding her feet in class. Shortly after the Easter of that academic year, I joined the Widening Participation team here at the University of Nottingham and visited one of the three local IntoUniversity centres as part of my role. I was delighted to find that Halima had been a regular attendee at their after-school Academic Support after-school sessions and had been receiving one-to-one mentoring from one of our committed university students throughout that academic year, with a specific focus on developing her confidence. Meeting Halima again that June at the IntoUniversity mentoring celebration on campus and chatting to her family, who were clearly thrilled with the difference that the IntoUniversity mentoring and academic support sessions were making to her, was a huge privilege.

Now, I tell that story as I think it really captures the impact that place-based work can have on the young people in our less advantaged communities. Would Halima have come along to weekly academic support sessions if we held them on the university campus? Difficult to know for sure, but I suspect not. Would she have travelled to campus to receive the weekly one-to-one mentoring from a university student? I very much doubt it. These young people turn up week in, week out at the IntoUniversity centres largely because the centres are based in, and have become an established and well-respected part of, their communities.

One-to-one mentoring

Our collaborative partnership with IntoUniversity has enabled us to expand significantly our outreach work and to engage with young people to support the ongoing work of addressing educational inequality in our city. Over the course of the partnership so far, several hundred of our university student volunteers have committed several thousands of hours of one-to-one mentoring at the IntoUniversity centres in the heart of these communities, countless academics and student groups have delivered academic sessions at these centres and, as a result of the partnership, we’ve welcomed thousands of young people and their families onto campus.

In terms of impact, IntoUniversity reports annually that, here in Nottingham, significantly more young people that they work with (all of whom come from a “widening participation” background) progress to Higher Education than the local averages of the areas in which their centres are based. And, over the years of the partnership, nearly 500 young people who have been involved with IntoUniversity centres have ended up studying at the University of Nottingham. Over 170 of those young people attended IntoUniversity Nottingham centres.

I genuinely believe that if we want local young people to come and study at our (or any) university, and local communities to understand what we do and why, we can’t just sit and wait for them to cross our thresholds or drive through our entrance barriers; we surely need to get out into our communities, engage with local people and look for ways to work together to improve lives and to deliver transformative change. Our partnership with IntoUniversity is a great example of this.

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Rehabilitation Matters is a series of stories and perspectives from people who care about effective clinical rehabilitation and the benefits it provides. Here, Dr Manoj Sivan, National Advisor to the NRC and President of the British Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (BSPRM), shares his thoughts on how the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) can be the flagship centre for rehabilitation in the UK. 

The UK lags behind our European counterparts in terms of workforce numbers for the specialty of Rehabilitation Medicine. We have one-tenth of the workforce (per unit population) when compared to most developed European countries including France, Italy and Germany.  This no doubt has an impact on our influence as a medical specialty to improve rehabilitation care for many long-term conditions.

But through the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) – and in particular the focus on bringing together high-quality clinical care, research, and training and education all under one roof – we have an incredible opportunity to deliver a step change in our approach to rehabilitation in the NHS.

Improving the rehabilitation workforce

I am President of the British Society of Physical & Rehabilitation Medicine (BSPRM) and I’m honoured to have been made National Advisor to the NRC Board.  As part of this role, I am focused on forging the link between the specialty of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Society and the NRC.  I’m excited at what we can deliver together as ultimately we are all focused on the same goal – to improve rehabilitation workforce and the services we can offer to get more people back to work and function after serious illness or injury.

There are many opportunities where we can work together to advance this ambition but I wanted to pick up on two areas which I see are particularly promising – workforce training and clinical research.

In terms of our workforce, we have over 350 members in the BSPRM.  The UK’s leading doctors in Rehabilitation Medicine are members, and we also have some Allied Health Professional (AHPs) and other disciplines.  Our members will be at the forefront of delivering the world-class treatment that the NRC aims to provide, helping it be a flagship centre for rehabilitation in the UK.  But we need more of these experts, and through the society I believe we can help to plug that gap, assisting with upskilling and training new experts in rehabilitation who will be the future leaders in our health service.  Our international collaborations too will enable better training opportunities and exchange fellowships with others centres of excellence overseas.

Clinical excellence

Clinical research is another area where the NRC can help to drive excellence.  Too often the health service operates in silos and the great academic work that scientists do does not get rapidly translated and impact patient care.  Clinical academics can make this translation quicker and easier – that’s why the NRC’s focus on integrating the clinical and academic spaces together will be inspiring for clinicians and transformational for rehabilitation research.

The academic partnership led by the University of Nottingham and Loughborough University is already delivering promising results and I’ve been hearing about exciting new rehabilitation technologies and approaches that are being developed through collaborative projects.  I look forward to a pool of clinical academics thriving in such a research-active environment.

Invaluable expertise

The NRC will benefit from the expertise in various Special Interest Groups of the Society (Spinal Cord Injury, Musculoskeletal, Amputee, Trauma, Rehabilitation Technology) and our Research Network and collaborations with the Society for Research in Rehabilitation (SRR), while the NRC is already represented in the Editorial Board of ‘Advances in Rehabilitation Science and Practice’ a new SAGE PubMed journal our Society is affiliated with.  The insights from the NRC will be invaluable and I’m excited to work together to raise the profile of rehabilitation.

I truly believe we can adopt the international rehabilitation model in the UK and, akin to our European neighbours, become a world leader in rehabilitation.  The NRC will be at the centre of this ambition.

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The Lancet Commission reports published in 2017 and 2021 have highlighted hearing loss as a major risk factor for dementia. Tom Dening, Clinical Professor in Dementia Research, has enthusiastically worn hearing aids since September 2022. Encouraged by the reports, here he discusses the limitations and the positive messages within them and what this means for hearing aid users. 

The Lancet Commission reports published in 2017 and 2021 have highlighted hearing loss as a major risk factor for dementia, suggesting that hearing loss from midlife onwards is responsible for about 8% of the potentially modifiable risk of dementia. Therefore, potentially, eliminating the problem could prevent 8% of future cases of dementia. This would be a huge effect and would dwarf the effects of any current or near-future pharmacological treatments.

The question then arises as to whether treating hearing loss does reduce dementia risk. This is attracting a lot of research attention at present. What evidence do we have, and how good is its quality? Papers published in recent years have tended to support the idea that hearing aids are beneficial, as they usually report that people wearing hearing aids have lower risks of developing dementia over time compared to those with untreated hearing loss. However, studies are often limited by relatively small numbers and the fact that hearing aid users and non-users may differ in important ways. For example, the latter group may be developing early features of dementia, may live in more socially deprived settings or may have worse physical health, any of which could explain lower hearing aid use.

Two papers published this year* have taken matters further. The first (Yeo et al., 2023) is a systematic review including 31 studies of hearing interventions and cognitive decline (so, not just dementia). A meta-analysis of eight of these studies (with nearly 127,000 participants in total) found a reduction of 19% in hazard of developing cognitive decline in hearing aid users compared to those with uncorrected hearing loss. There was also a 3% increase in cognitive test scores in the short-term. In the second paper (Jiang et al., 2023), the authors used data from the UK Biobank from nearly half a million participants, comparing groups with and without self-reported hearing problems in relation to future diagnosis of dementia. Compared to people with normal hearing, those with hearing loss and without hearing aids had an over 40% increased risk of dementia (hazard ratio = 1.42). However, people with hearing loss and using hearing aids had the same risk of dementia as those with normal hearing.

These papers are very encouraging reading as they strengthen the impression that hearing aid use may well be beneficial for brain health and therefore that clinicians should encourage patients to seek hearing assessment and treatment. However, what we still don’t know is whether, if everyone with hearing loss used hearing aids, that would produce similar large reductions in dementia risk. That would require a randomised controlled trial, which would be difficult to design because of the ethical problem of having a control group who were denied hearing aids.

Another important issue concerns how hearing conditions may contribute to cognitive impairment. There are several hypotheses, which include (1) increased cognitive load (if you can’t hear, your brain has to work harder all the time), (2) sensory deprivation (if you can’t hear, you miss out on much of the information in your environment), (3) common cause of neurodegeneration in brain and auditory pathways (e.g. vascular disease), (4) central auditory dysfunction (which can be an early manifestation of dementia), and (5) psychosocial isolation and withdrawal (which can result from either hearing loss or cognitive changes, but is exacerbated by the two occurring together). These hypotheses are also relevant to how hearing aids might work. For example, you would expect that hearing aids would be effective against mechanisms (1), (2) and (5), but less so against (3) and (4). Thus, if people who don’t use hearing aids have a preponderance of vascular pathology or central auditory dysfunction, this may explain why they don’t use aids. And making them do so would probably not affect their dementia risk.

One final question that occurs to me is that maybe eventually we will find that hearing impairment is only a proxy from the real risk factor. By this I mean that we should be looking carefully at the characteristics of the hearing non-user group. Perhaps at least some of them are non-users for very good reasons, and their increased dementia risk may be due to factors that also underlie their hearing loss (vascular, neurodegenerative, adverse social circumstances, etc).

In the meantime though, recent research is good news as it suggests that hearing aids can be useful little blighters when it comes to reducing your risk of future dementia. Audiologists will of course welcome the news and hopefully the public too. However, do we have a system that can cope with the potential demand? One of the most potent ways of promoting hearing aid acceptance is through the relationship of the patient with the audiologist, though I suspect that we are rarely able to offer this within the NHS.

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Rehabilitation Matters is a series of stories and perspectives from people who care about effective clinical rehabilitation and the benefits it provides. Rick Harrington, National Rehabilitation Centre Engagement Coordinator at the University of Nottingham, explains why great rehabilitation comes from having an holistic approach. 

I joined the University of Nottingham just a few months ago, taking on the role of Engagement Co-ordinator to support the University’s involvement in developing the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), and already I can tell the NRC is going to be a pretty special place.

My background is in psychotherapy and trauma.  I spent more than 10 years in the Armed Forces so I’ve seen many people go through rehabilitation journeys with varying success levels. The main thing I’ve learned from these experiences is that the emotional and psychological toll of a serious injury or illness can often be as challenging – if not more so – than the physical trauma.

Holistic approach to rehabilitation

That’s why having a holistic approach to a patient’s rehabilitation programme with a clear interaction between physical, emotional and psychological aspects is crucial to positive outcomes. The NRC and its academic partners – led by the University of Nottingham and Loughborough University – will focus on innovation in rehabilitation, including through technology, but it’s the programme’s commitment to incorporating psychological and emotional therapy that excites me the most.

Rehabilitation is not an easy thing to get right and there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach. Each patient’s programme must be relevant and rightsized for them as an individual. You can’t see psychological trauma like you can physical, so it’s vital that healthcare professionals put time and effort into building strong relationships with patients. Rehabilitation has to be a partnership between patient and healthcare professional – done with you, not to you.

For instance, through the charity I set up, Forces in the Community, we support ex-service personnel and their families to improve their circumstances and future prospects. I’ve seen many people who have had excellent physical care and have bounced back into work, only to experience long-term psychological problems which they have struggled to overcome and which have continued to impact their lives for years.

Patients at the centre

A patient-centred, holistic approach is embedded in the NRC’s ethos. Patients at the NRC will work with a range of specialist professionals from disciplines including physiotherapy, orthopaedics and dietetics to occupational therapy, psychology and social work. NHS clinical teams will work with patients and their carers to assess, treat and manage conditions, setting individual rehabilitation goals to help patients achieve their maximum potential for physical, cognitive, social and psychological function and quality of life.

This is what a holistic, interdisciplinary approach looks like and I’m very much looking forward to playing my part in making it happen.

The NRC will be leading the way in rehabilitation – that’s exciting and potentially game-changing. But I hope we see a situation in years to come when this is not just best practice, but common practice.

Rick Harrington, NRC Engagement Coordinator at the University of Nottingham.

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Dr Helen McCabe, Associate Professor in Political Theory and expert in forced marriage at the University of Nottingham, comments on the news that the legal age of marriage in England and Wales has been raised to 18 years old.

She said: “The change in the law around age of marriage is very welcome. It brings England and Wales into line with international law and conventions, and closes a loophole some parents were exploiting to force their children to marry. We may have a romantic image of 16-year-olds marrying (like Romeo and Juliet), but the reality, as brave survivors have come forward to attest today, is often very, very different.

“This said, much work will need to be done to ensure that all stakeholders, especially front-line staff in services such as social work, the police, and education, are aware of the change in the law, and how best to support children still facing a forced marriage. A new “toolkit” from the UK government’s Forced Marriage Unit is a welcome start. It is not clear that all stakeholders know about the change in the law, or how it will affect the communities with whom they work, and for whose well-being they have a responsibility. There is also the problem of marriage at 16 still being legal in Scotland (without the need for parental consent) and Northern Ireland (with parental consent), making the law different across the UK.

“However, it is still an important step forward in the campaign to end child, early and forced marriage that, from today, children will be protected by the law if someone wants them to marry.”

Dr McCabe has previously written a blog for Justice Everywhere when the Bill was introduced to Parliament, read it here: http://justice-everywhere.org/general/ending-child-marriage-in-the-uk/

Read more about Dr McCabe’s research here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/people/helen.mccabe

Contact the Press Office to arrange interviews with Dr McCabe at pressoffice@notttingham.ac.uk or on 0115 9515798.

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In the pandemic, Professor of Health Humanities Paul Crawford led a team of researchers and clinicians in a project titled ‘What’s Up With Everyone?’. This was in collaboration with Academy-award winning animators Aardman (Shaun the Sheep, Wallace & Gromit, and Chicken Run). Here, he talks about the transformative power of creative industries to better help young people deal with their mental health challenges.

Our project, titled What’s Up With Everyone?, gave voice to the challenges in life that young people told researchers they struggled with during this time in their lives: loneliness and isolation; perfectionism; competitiveness; independence; social media. An exciting addition was that the voices to the wonderfully quirky characters co-designed by Aardman Director, Dan Binns (Merve, Alex, Charlie  Ashley, and Tai) were voiced by five of the young people who took part in our project.

Reducing mental health stigma

We wanted to focus on the needs of young people who were transitioning from school to higher education or the workplace – a highly stressful milestone in a person’s life – and we sought to increase young people’s literacy on the topic of mental health; their ability to understand their own mental health and how to seek out appropriate help.

It was fantastic to see the importance of storytelling for exploring mental health. The five short, animated stories co-created with Aardman really do improve young people’s attitude towards, and knowledge of, mental health. It also increased their willingness to seek help and boosted their confidence in helping others, whilst significantly reducing   the stigma towards depression.

A huge success

What’s Up With Everyone? was a huge success. Here are some of my favourite highlights:

• We reached more than 17 million people in the first four months alone.
• We scooped the award for ‘Best Achievement for Social Media and Content’ at the 2021 Design Week Awards.
• Celebrities such as Stephen Fry, Ovie Soko, Chris Hughes, Malin Andersson, Tom Read Wilson got behind the campaign.
• We achieved more than 300 pieces of media coverage across print, TV and radio.

More recently, Aardman Executive Producer Lorna Probert congratulated the project on its transformational approach to youth mental health. She wrote:

“At Aardman we have always prided ourselves in being able to understand and connect with our audiences. We are very used to working closely with our audiences in developing our content – user testing is always an essential part of any of our projects but co creation took this one step further. We found that engaging young people in the creative process had the power to unlock greater understanding of the issues they face and the help they feel is needed, letting them be a part of a solution rather than telling them what they need.

“The project has shown us how vital it is to closely involve audiences in the discussion and creation around resources to support them and not to make any assumptions about what they need, like and feel. It has highlighted how   we can achieve greater connection, and therefore greater impact, in the content we create.

“We found it very enlightening to work with such a wide and multidisciplinary group of partners on the project. Having access to the wealth of expertise around mental health meant that we could validate the bigger picture of young people’s mental health and that the messages and content we were providing was backed up by accurate research. Through the project we have established a valuable network of contacts in the health and academic sectors which we hope will continue to be mutually beneficial for future endeavours to support public health.”

Commenting on the contribution of creative industries to public health, Lorna added:

“The project has demonstrated to us the power our creative industries can have in translating and communicating important messages around public health into engaging content which genuinely connects with people and has real positive impact. This project has given the whole team here a much better understanding of the public mental health challenges we face and the current infrastructure that supports it, as well as the needs and concerns of young people in this area. So, we hope – armed with this knowledge – we cannot-only provide better resources for our own staff and audiences, but also be alert to future opportunities to support initiatives around this.”

Global impact

In July of 2021, The Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds in the United States joined numerous organisations and groups to support the promotion of the What’s Up With Everyone? campaign. The mission of The Clay Center, which sits within the Department of Psychiatry’s Division of Public and Professional Education at Massachusetts General Hospital, is to prevent, reduce, and de-stigmatize youth mental health conditions and illness through education. Further, the Clay Center has a mission to promote the social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioural well-being of children and young people.

The Clay Center published my blog post on its website, including the WUWE campaign video, feeding in from Aardman Animations official YouTube page, and includes a call to action to engage with the campaign through social media, and learn more at the WUWE official website. Following publication of the blog post, The Clay Center promoted WUWE through its own social media channels, linking back to each The Clay Center blog post, and various WUWE videos and resources.

Since posting, the WUWE Clay Center webpage has proved very successful.

• Seen continually increasing traffic since first launching July 2021, with the most prominent increase taking place between July 2022-February 2023. This 8-month period has seen more than 4x the web traffic to the post when compared to the previous 12-month period (July 2021-June 2022).
• Most visits to the webpage (86%) are from organic search traffic, followed by traffic from third-party sites (12%), including education platforms like Google Classroom and UMass Medical School.
• Webpage visitors from organic search traffic spent an average of 1 minute 54 seconds on the page, compared to a 55 second average across industries, in the United States; even more striking, visitors from third-party sites spent an average of 3 minutes 58 seconds on the page.
• The page has had visitors from more than 30 countries worldwide, including high engagement with the page from more than half of those countries – particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines, Canada, and Ireland.
• As of March 2023, in the United States, The Clay Center’s WUWE post appears as the number three result when entering the search term “what’s up with everyone campaign” into Google’s search engine – preceding the Mental Health Foundation’s WUWE post of a similar nature. Further, when entering the more generic search term “youth mental health campaign”, The Clay Center’s WUWE post appears at the top of the search
  results list.

Incredibly proud

Dr David Crepaz-Keay, Head of Applied Learning at the Mental Health Foundation, has also expressed their gratitude for “the incredible impact that the ‘What’s Up With Everyone’ project has had on our work, the key staff involved and the broader organisation.”

He shared: “The co-creation process that was involved in this project was truly remarkable. At the Mental Health Foundation, we have always worked to develop the most engaging and accessible resources, but the unique approach taken in this project took our work to a whole new level. The project brought together top-flight creatives, leading academic partners and young co-creators to ensure that the messages and content provided were creative, evidence-based, and accessible.

“Through this project, we were able to leverage the power of co-creation, which allowed young people to play an active role in providing insights, ideas, and feedback during the creation process. We were also delighted to collaborate with leading creatives from the Aardman team, whose expertise in animation contributed to the project’s increased engagement, making mental health information more relatable and accessible to young audiences. Besides, we were able to align the messaging and content of the resource with that of professional bodies UK-wide.

“We are incredibly proud to have been part of this project and to have played a role in raising awareness of young people’s mental health while breaking down the barriers to accessing support. Our organisation is now better positioned to create resources that are truly co-created and informed by the communities we serve, thanks to this project’s unique approach.”

Creative public health

It is stand-out that Aardman, the creators of so many iconic animated films, consider themselves transformed by their engagement on this project. I was delighted by the potential for what I call “creative public health” – that is, the huge potential for creative industries to join with the more familiar resources of the NHS and social care, to advance the health of the nation.

I am proud of what our young people, colleagues from collaborating institutions at University of Nottingham, Loughborough University, London School of Economics and Politics, supported by its formal partner, Mental Health Foundation, Happy Space and clinical advisers have achieved with this project. It underlines the significance of working together across disciplinary borders. The big questions demand transdisciplinary, cross-sector answers.

The films should continue to be of interest to young people at school, preparing for college, university or the workplace, but also appeal strongly to those in the 13-17 age group, beginning to explore how to develop mentally healthy approaches to life. We also found that young adults and adult audiences were interested to learn about these resources, possibly for themselves or the children and young people they are responsible for.

The campaign, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, was led by Professor Paul Crawford, with support from Dr Sachiyo Ito-Jaeger  and Professor Elvira Perez Vallejos, University of Nottingham, along with contributors from Loughborough University, the London School of Economics and Politics; the Mental Health Foundation, mental wellbeing charity, Happy Space; and with young people’s mental health expert, Dr Dominique Thompson.

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Rehabilitation Matters is a series of stories and perspectives from people who care about effective clinical rehabilitation and the benefits it provides. In this guest blog, Dr Ishara Dharmasena, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow and Lecturer at Wolfson School, Loughborough University, explains how the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) could help to revolutionise rehabilitation around the world. 

There is a lot of great work going on to develop new healthcare technologies. The National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) and its Rehab Technologies Network+ is doing a fantastic job at bringing experts together to explore increasing the use of technology in rehabilitation to help get people back to fitness and function faster following serious injury or illness. One area I’m specifically interested in is telerehabilitation, which involves the remote delivery of rehabilitation services using telecommunication devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

Telerehabilitation

I have been fortunate to receive funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering to develop technologies to improve telerehabilitation.  My current research project is focused on developing wearable smart textiles that can be used in the rehabilitation process. These textiles, called “Triboelectric Super-Smart Textiles”, are made of intelligent fibres that act as sensors to detect motion so we can measure and monitor different body movements. A unique feature of the technology is that the textiles themselves can produce the energy required for sensing by converting the kinetic energy from the wearer’s body movements into an electrical current. This is done by using very small textile power generators known as ‘Triboelectric Nanogenerators’ (TENGs) which work on static charges – similar charges that are responsible for lightening, or that make a balloon stick to a wall when rubbed against a jumper.

One application we’re looking at is generating motion data from a patient recovering from an injury so we can measure the range of movement of their limbs.  The power we harvest from the triboelectric super-smart textiles can be used to capture this data and link to a mobile phone, which can be accessed by a doctor for analysis and diagnosis.

Improving rehabilitation outcomes

While there’s still work to do, I’m incredibly encouraged with our progress so far.  In particular, I’m excited at the potential impact down the line that rolling out this technology could have on remote areas or developing countries where healthcare is less accessible or less affordable.  There are parts of the world where there is only one rehabilitation professional to one million patients, so technology like this could be truly transformational.

As one of the lead academic partners for the NRC, alongside the University of Nottingham, Loughborough University has been heavily involved in its various programmes and networks, and the focus on innovation and technology solutions has been central to everything.

Smart textiles

At the end of our research project, we hope to have a range of fully-functioning smart textiles such as t-shirts and arm bands that can be worn like support bandages.  A state-of-the-art facility like the NRC would be the perfect place to experiment these technologies with patients so we can improve and develop the technology further and hopefully be able to roll it out and use with generations for years to come.

I truly believe that technology like this can help to revolutionise rehabilitation and patient outcomes across the world, and I’m excited at the prospect of doing this in collaboration with the National Rehabilitation Centre.

Further information on my research project is available here and a video where I explain the technology is here.

Dr Ishara Dharmasena, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow and Lecturer at Wolfson School – Loughborough University

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Rehabilitation Matters is a series of stories and perspectives from people who care about effective clinical rehabilitation and the benefits it provides. In this article, Dr Andrew Capel, Research Associate at Loughborough University, writes about the opportunity for the UK to be a world-leader in rehabilitation – and how R&D and innovation have an enormous role to play.

As an academic, I live and breathe research and development.  So I may be biased when I say it’s a very exciting time to be working in this space.  Ever-advancing technology is increasing the potential scope of research – and rehabilitation is one area where we have a particularly fantastic opportunity to do something special in the UK.

Loughborough University is one of the lead academic partners for the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) alongside the University of Nottingham.  Through working with various programmes, research groups and networks I’m already seeing the great opportunities we have through the NRC to raise the bar and make a meaningful difference across clinical rehabilitation.

Earlier this year, Loughborough University was pleased to be awarded a £1 million grant by the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs – Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) as part of funding for ready-to-use products and services to replace, reduce and refine animal use in clinical studies.

To deliver this project, I am working alongside my colleague Professor Mark Lewis – the University’s academic lead for the NRC – to develop lab grown tissues that mimic human musculoskeletal anatomy.  This will allow us to model human injury and regeneration, providing researchers with a tool to develop and test potential new therapies, and ultimately help to reduce the use of animals in biological research.

During the research project we will be working with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), where we will model the impact of acoustic blast injuries (recreating battlefield trauma) on form and function by using the human tissues we create in the lab.  It is not possible to model this type of injury within humans, and therefore this research will provide a platform from which we can begin to understand how these injuries occur, allowing new therapies and rehabilitative practices to be developed, and ultimately help to improve outcomes for patients who have suffered serious injury.

This is an area in which defence medicine has lots of experience so we’re looking to learn from them and improve our understanding of the impacts of acoustic blast injury.

It is this sharing and learning that is so central to R&D and innovation, and it is what excites me most about the NRC.  Best practice from international rehabilitation facilities have been applied to the NRC from the state-of-the-art equipment to the design of the buildings, while the opportunities to share knowledge, expertise and innovation from defence medicine can be maximised given that the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) is just a matter of metres away on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate.

Equally, integrating the clinical and academic space and facilities within the NRC brings many benefits for research and development, and I can’t wait to make use of the facilities once the NRC is up and running.

Through the NRC, we can be world-leaders in pioneering new technologies and treatments for rehabilitation.  That has to be good for patients, good for medical science, and good for the UK as a whole. I’m looking forward to playing my part.

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As G7 leaders meet for a summit in the Bavarian Alps today to seek a deal to impose a ‘price cap’ on Russian oil as part of sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine, Dr Tyler Kustra, assistant professor in the School of Politics and International Relations, looks at how it might work in practice.

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