Integrated Health and Social Care updates
Our Theme News
Integrated Health
& Social Care
Our research
Safer Integrated Health and Social Care Environments
People are living with more complicated health issues and having to see a larger number of health and social care professionals because of this. This can lead to many appointments, repeating information, and lots of traveling to different places.
Our theme is focused on where and how we can join up care and provide a better service for the person in need of support. Health and social care cover a broad range of support, from prevention (such as the screening and safeguarding) to recovery (such as moving from hospital back home) and everything in between.
We know health is not just physical, but instead a mix of physical, mental, and social. Our theme looks at both health systems (such as hospitals and GP surgeries) and social care systems (community-based organisations and social support) to understand where the gaps are.
Patient, Public Contributors Blog series, blog 3
Bringing carers together to share their insights.
Patient, Public Contributors Blog series, blog 2
Speaking openly and publicly about my experience brings some relief, knowing that health professionals and researchers want to hear the “good, the bad and the ugly” about failures of health care in the UK, is refreshing
Patient, Public Contributors Blog series, blog 1
Raising awareness fo the unpaid, unselfish work unpaid family carers do
What it means to be a Carer?
Art piece developed by the Tilly Hale Carer Research Panel lead by Dr Matt Cooper
Virtual Wards PSRC SafetyNet Event Sept 2024
The event aimed to facilitate discussion to identify and develop research priorities and partnerships in the virtual wards area of research
Shared Care
Shared Care: Drama under the radar, by Dr Hamde Nazar Co Theme Lead for Safer Integrated Health and Social Care environments.
Tilly Hare Award 2024 granted
Matt Cooper, Hamde Nazar, Charlotte Richardson, and Laura Lindsay granted a Tilly Hale Award for their approach to involving informal (unpaid) carers in driving their research agenda.
Supporting Care Transitions for Older Adults
Investigating how we can use digital technologies to support older adults with multiple, complex health and social care needs, to ensure they remain safe as they move between different care environments.
Integrated Health & Social Care Publications and Awards
Researchers from the Integrated Health and Social Care theme have the following outputs and awards.
Do hospital-to-home transitions work for older adults with multiple long-term conditions including dementia? A realist review
Lawson, L. Cooper, M. Tolley, C. Hand, A. Nazar, H.
Hospital-to-home transitions involve multiple providers and are particularly complex for older adults with dementia, who often live with additional conditions. Frequent transitions increase the risk of errors, miscommunication, and treatment delays, compromising patient safety and leading to potentially increased mortality, morbidity, and preventable readmissions. Understanding what works and does not work in these processes is essential to improving outcomes.
Informing research design through patient and public involvement; patients and carers with lived experience post-hospital discharge and potential roles for general practice pharmacists
Yahya F, Bartlett S, Paudyal V, Hadi MA, Nazar H, Maidment I. Informing research design through patient and public involvement; patients and carers with lived experience post-hospital discharge and potential roles for general practice pharmacists. BMC Research Notes. 2025 Apr 17;18(1):181.
Medication safety across care transitions remains a significant burden on healthcare systems. Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) is useful at the very early stages of intervention development to inform research priorities. The aim of this PPI was to scope patients’ and carers’ lived experiences of medicines management post-hospital discharge to inform the design of a research proposal.
Conceptualising social prescribing in urgent and emergency care
Cooper M, Nazar H, Flynn D, Redelsteiner C, Agarwal G, Scott J. Conceptualising Social Prescribing in Urgent and Emergency Care. Future Healthcare Journal. 2024 Oct 21:100199.
This paper examines how social prescribing could be implemented across urgent and emergency care (UEC) systems by examining potentially viable referral pathways and the salient challenges and barriers to implementation. In doing so, we consider a range of services involved in the broader UEC system to include emergency departments, emergency medical (ambulance) services, out-of-hours general practitioners, telephony-based urgent care, urgent treatment centres, and community pharmacy. This paper aims to encourage further debate on this topic, including around the nuances of UEC services that may influence implementation of social prescribing.
Barriers and Facilitators to the Design and Delivery of Social Prescribing Services to Support Adult Mental Health: Perspectives of Social Prescribing Service Providers
Cooper, M. Flynn, D. Scott, J. Ashley, K. Avery, L. Barriers and Facilitators to the Design and Delivery of Social Prescribing Services to Support Adult Mental Health: Perspectives of Social Prescribing Service Providers. Health and Social Care in the Community. Volume 2024, Issue 1.
Service providers are an essential part of the design and delivery of social prescribing services. Person-centred care, sustainable funding, and improved knowledge of social prescribing all warrant further research. Sustainable funding for social prescribing remains a salient policy-level barrier.