Research Grant Winners 2024

Dr Fiona Maclean earned a Research Priority Grant for her project ‘Co-creating the future: the use of multifunctional robots in occupational therapy and dementia’.

Fiona is Head of Subject for Allied Health and Social Care Science at Edinburgh Napier University. Appointed as Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy in January 2022, she also serves as Honorary Professor at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, where she previously led the design and delivery of post-registration Master’s occupational therapy education.

Fiona specialises in the development of innovative educational initiatives to expand learning opportunities for allied health professionals, with a focus on rehabilitation and dementia. Her research includes advancing continuing professional education to enhance occupational therapists' knowledge and understanding of the changing patterns of drinking alcohol in later life.

Fiona has published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals and is a co-editor of a recently published textbook in occupational therapy that advocates for inclusion, rights, and   opportunities for people with dementia. She is a member of the Centre for Mental Health Practice, Policy and Law Research, Edinburgh Napier University.

Julian Jeyasingh-Jacob received a Scoping Review Grant for his review ‘What is the use of Artificial Intelligence in Occupational Therapy Practice, Education, and Research? A scoping review’.

Julian is a clinical service lead occupational therapist with over two decades of experience in health and social care. In his current role as a Research Fellow undertaking a PhD at Imperial College London, he is exploring the use of innovative technologies to enhance the care of individuals with dementia. His research focuses on using in-home sensor systems and conversational AI to detect and analyse daily living activities, enabling more personalised care and support. Julian’s commitment to advancing occupational therapy practice through digital innovation has positioned him as a pioneer in the UK in this field. He is a member of the Royal College of OT advisory group Research and Innovation Advisory Group, and his ongoing contributions have the potential to help shape the future of health and social care practice, particularly in the care of people with dementia.

You can apply for our current research funding opportunities now! Visit rcot.co.uk/application-information for more details.

Dr Brightlin Dhas was awarded a Research Career Development Grant for his project ‘Practice Readiness of Newly Qualified Occupational Therapists in United Kingdom’.

Dr Brightlin Dhas is an experienced occupational therapist with 17 years of clinical experience in India and Qatar. He has a strong passion for teaching and research and joined the University of Northampton in October 2023 as a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy.

Dr Dhas brings a wealth of expertise in holistic care for children with disabilities, having worked in various paediatric settings. He is passionate about family-centred care and specializes in promoting occupational participation in children with disabilities through neuromotor training, specialized seating, assistive technology, and parent empowerment. His research interests lie in fostering healthy engagement in daily occupations, with previous research exploring topics such as parental perceptions of play, occupational balance among parents, and occupational health.

With experience in occupational therapy education and practice across multiple countries, Dr Dhas has developed a keen interest in the practice readiness of newly qualified occupational therapists. Alongside the research team comprising Fiona Burbeary, Jenny Devers, Terry Brown, and Rachel Murrill, Dr. Dhas aims to explore multiple stakeholder perspectives on the practice readiness of newly qualified occupational therapists in the UK.

Alicia Ridout, Director and Founder of Involve Me Digital Research Ltd, explains how her project will use the funding:

Occupational therapists are one of the professional groups included in the scope for implementation of the new Skills for Care Delegated healthcare Activities (DHA) Principles guidance released in 2024. A workshop exploring DHA deployment was held with occupational therapists as part of University of Birmingham IMPACT Demonstrator project in Leeds, focused on integrated neighbourhood team service improvements. The insights form occupational therapists highlighted a need for further development of profession specific guidance and implementation planning.

This project aims to support the profession’s work to explore ways to effectively deploy the new principles in adult social care practice contexts, by reviewing existing literature, and undertaking co-design work with occupational therapists and citizens. This will be the basis for testing ideas for the effective deployment of DHAs via a plan do study act service improvement methodology. The action plans arising from this small-scale test and learn work will be shared widely via the RCOT innovation hub. The project seeks to trigger wider conversations about delegation of healthcare activities to support person centred care across pathways and services.

Alison Gillespie, Practice-based Learning Lecturer in Occupational Therapy, shares the details of her project:

OT student-led groups are an innovative approach in the Integrated Master’s programme for Occupational Therapy at Robert Gordon University. Anecdotal evidence from our pilot student-led groups indicates that participants became more socially engaged and focused, with perceived improvements in their physical and mental health and well-being as a consequence of participating in occupation-focused activities.

The Innovation Seed Fund will be used to stock occupation-focused resource boxes, which will serve as the foundation for our group activities. These boxes will include user instructions and linked risk assessments. By providing sustainable items, students can select relevant occupations from the boxes that will align with participants’ goals.

For our students, understanding the resident group both collectively and individually, and considering their needs and objectives within a group context, enhances practical skills. These hands-on experiences will help our new graduates demonstrate creativity and versatility, using sustainable methods and techniques to highlight the importance of occupation for their client group.

Catherine Seals, Mental Health Team Lead, notes how she plans to utilise her funding:

I work within Nottinghamshire West Primary Care Network (PCN) within the GP surgeries as a Mental Health Occupational Therapist (MHOTs). In our local area wait times for most secondary and sometimes third sector services has increased, impacting on the preventative work that is essential for supporting mental health.  As MHOTs, we are a limited resource within primary care and being able to offer group work as a regular intervention would enable us to see multiple patients and intervene in a more occupation focused way, providing the much needed preventative work and in the long term reducing pressure on already overburdened services. 

Our plan is to offer a rolling group programme accessible to all individuals registered within a GP surgery in Nottingham West PCN.  All of the groups to be offered have not fully been decided on and will focus exclusively on the needs of the individuals within the PCN, so will be flexible to change depending on those needs. Some ideas discussed have been, Autism and ADHD – executive functioning, Recovery through activity, community engagement groups. We have already run one pilot group which ran for six weeks – Mental Health Skills Group. It focused on; occupation supporting anxiety and depression management, goal setting, occupational balance, compassion and mindfulness, motivation. With the funding we have now been able to access we are excited to build on this work we have started and develop a sustainable service for our patients across our patch. 

Lucy McNeill, Advanced Practitioner Primary Care Occupational Therapist, describes her Innovation Seed Fund project:

Occupational therapy in primary care has shown the benefits of earlier intervention. Often enabling patients to have the skills and confidence to self-manage symptoms increasing a patient’s functional ability and reducing the need for contact with the GP practice.

The Primary Care Occupational Therapy service in Moray is keen to offer Tai Chi and Qigong as part of our falls prevention and long term conditions strategy. This will be offered in both groups and individually and be based in a variety of settings so that it is widely accessible for all patients. Venues will include GP practices, sheltered housing and local exercise and social groups. Moray has a mix of urban, rural and remote communities, which present challenges in terms of travel and suitable venues. To ensure equity of service, a blended, creative approach will be required, including face to face and virtual options.

The Occupational Therapist and the Occupational Therapy Assistant who are completing 'Tai chi and Qigong Training for Therapists' will share this training within the Primary Care Occupational Therapy team and support further development in this area.

Our focus will be on the prevention of functional decline using this holistic and evidence-based activity. Supporting patients to transfer these self-management skills to other areas of their daily routines and increasing the opportunity for meaningful occupation. Finding confidence in learning a new skill with the encouragement of other patients and therapists.The patient can then continue to use these skills independently after being discharged from the Primary Care OT service and if needed signposted to a local community group working.

Philip Wade, Lead Occupational Therapist, tells us about his Innovation Seed Fund project:

Hedley’s College, part of The Percy Hedley Foundation in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is a specialist education provision for young adults with disabilities. We, the OT team, support students to access the curriculum, gain work experience opportunities and engage in activities that promote independence.

XR Therapeutics (XRT) is an organisation providing an innovative new form of therapy. By applying custom-built virtual reality (VR) technology to conventional therapeutic approaches, XRT enables therapists to deliver interventions using immersive scenes to replicate real-life situations.

When we visited XRT and experienced the technology in their immersive studio we immediately began to think of how it could be used to benefit our students. With XRT’s Chief Scientific Officer we discussed potential ways in which the technology could be adapted to augment our OT service.

Thanks to the RCOT Innovation Seed Fund award we have been able to secure a year’s initial contract with XRT, and we can now make our plans into a (virtual) reality. XRT will install a mini-studio at college and create a bespoke software package for us, with customised VR scenes that will become a key element of our intervention plans.

The virtual reality technology in our immersive mini-studio will offer our students the opportunity to navigate environments and scenarios which may typically be challenging for them. Guided by an OT, who can grade and control variables of the scene, students will be able to work on ways to overcome challenges, in a safe, controlled environment, before transferring these skills into real life situations.

It’s so exciting to see how this technology is evolving and transforming clinical practice, and we are thrilled to be the first OT team to work with XRT to develop a new use for the technology. We are extremely grateful to RCOT for enabling us to collaborate on this exciting project.

The Early Researcher Award goes to an outstanding RCOT Conference presentation based on research findings from a post-registration Master’s or doctoral studies, or the first piece of ethically-approved research. Laura Ingham won this year’s award for her presentation ‘Evaluation methods used by occupational therapists in primary care – are current mechanisms value based?’.

Laura is Education, Research and Practice Development Lead for Occupational Therapy at Swansea Bay University Health Board.  She is also currently a PhD student at Cardiff University, exploring through a mixed methods study, evaluation methods used by occupational therapists in Primary Care.

Laura is committed to developing the culture required to support high quality and impactful research and innovation within occupational therapy and is passionate about evidencing the contribution of the profession. Through providing leadership for occupational therapists participating in research projects, trials, service evaluation, quality improvement projects and clinical audit, Laura has been developing her own expertise.  Her own research interests include; virtual working, hand therapy and rheumatology, evaluation methods, primary care and Value-Based Health Care. Laura enjoys developing the skills of others and highly values the benefits of collaborating with health board colleagues, partner organisations and members of the public to progress projects and research delivery.

The Early Researcher Prize is given to a final year pre-registration learner who has completed an outstanding research project. This year’s prize was awarded to Jason Chun Hin Sze, a pre-registration Masters student at Glasgow Caledonian University, for his research project entitled ‘Characteristics of occupational therapy interventions to promote healthy ageing: a scoping review’.

Jason completed his Occupational Therapy MSc at Glasgow Caledonian University, where he gained diverse placement experience, especially in community older adult mental health. This sparked his interest in promoting healthy ageing to help more people enjoy a good quality of life, even in later stages. Jason believes his empathy and adventurous mindset drive him to make a positive social impact. He is passionate about taking on challenging roles and actively seeking service and research gaps to advance equality and occupational justice for all. Jason firmly holds that everyone deserves meaningful occupations and a sense of belonging for true inclusivity. Since graduating, Jason has worked at an organization promoting social inclusion for marginalized groups, including discharged prisoners, ethnic minorities, and individuals with mental health issues, helping them feel a sense of belonging. He is also convinced that primary prevention and research are the best ways to tackle societal challenges. Apart from his professional work, Jason enjoys fencing, language learning, and cooking cuisines from around the world, as he believes that food is another unifying element that transcends language barriers.