Research Forum 2020
The 2020 Annual Research Forum showcased the fantastic research completed by our Trust staff and academic collaborators.
In line with 2020 COVID-19 restrictions the event was unable to go ahead in a physical location but was held online using Zoom. Unexpected pulls on staff time and availability reduced the regular number of delegates; regardless of this the event went well and created a forum for sharing and discussion.
The event was opened by Medical Director, Dr Chris Hosker, who welcomed delegates to the event. Chris wanted to celebrate the work that has been done by the Trust and collaborating partners and highlighted his pride and honour to have Research and Development as a function of the medical directorate. Chris echoed that to achieve consistent high quality care for service users one of his priority areas is to have a ‘joined up excellent Research and Development team’.
Presentations throughout the day covered a wide range of topics and included results from Autoimmune causes of psychosis – fact or fiction presented by Belinda Lennox, the Journeying through Dementia study looking at whether attending a 12-week community programme had a positive impact on the quality of life for people who are living with the early stages of dementia. Updates from LYPFT’s own Dr George Crowther on older people’s research opportunities in Leeds and Professor Barry Wright on Child and Adolescent Mental Health studies available. Jo Ramsden introduced the idea of the research Dragons’ Den taking place during Research Forum in November 2021. The day featured some excellent updates and none more so than the striking visual display of findings from Paul Heron, University of York, on ‘What the national Health and Wellbeing SMI study learned about local service users’. The presentations were well received and stimulated a good chat afterwards.
Watch a recording of the event on YouTube using the following links:
Feedback captured from the event included:
“Face to face conferences are preferable but I thought online worked really well too, better than I expected. I thought it all went smoothly and was a great day. Thanks to everyone who worked hard on it!”
“Presenting through Zoom went well, it was good there was a host ready to allow speakers to share screens and help with any technical issues that may have arisen.”
“Good variety of topics and speakers. Length well-timed for a zoom day. I missed the posters but at face to face events I often didn’t have time to look at them… technology worked well (even Joe’s link went straight through to youtube so was accessible).”
“I thought there was a great variety of interesting speakers all doing great research and I really enjoyed hearing them. The commentators were also great to listen to but it I think the timing was off. It’s unfortunate if the timing was the reason we weren’t able to do exercises around lunch time because I felt I could really have done with them.”
“The team have done really well to organise the forum in a completely different format which worked well. The chairs did well to keep things to time and having the option of asking a question through the chat function was good.”
“The content of the presentations was really good and the usual great feel of the forum was kept despite COVID-19 taking us online.”