10259 research outputs found
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Designing for Healthy Cognitive Ageing Project: Serious Game Data, 2021-2023
No full textThe Serious Game ('Our House') developed during the DesHCA research project is intended to assist individuals and organisations to make decisions about future housing. The development work involved a serious of playtests and workshops that provided feedback on the game and enabled it to be improved and refined. The initial draft of the game drew on findings from other parts of the DesHCA project. The data archive includes a sample of 128 participants, with a mixture of housing association (37), academic (13), local government (11), architecture (10), health and care sector (8) charity and third sector (20) and developer (4) backgrounds. There were also older community representatives (25). Participants engaged through a series of 10 playtests throughout the UK, ranging from 5 to 40 people (nine in-person and one online). The participants were recruited via snowball sampling.As we age, many of us will experience cognitive changes, and for some of us, these will develop into dementia. We know that people's homes can make the experience of cognitive changes more difficult, or can enable continuing inclusion and sense of self-worth and self-esteem. DesHCA worked with people experiencing ageing and cognitive change and those who design and develop housing. DesHCA identified housing innovations that can support living better for longer with cognitive change. Our emphasis on healthy cognitive ageing goes beyond narrow conceptions of 'dementia-friendly design' into a more expansive and inclusive approach to housing innovation.
The multidisciplinary DesHCA team involved stakeholders from all areas of housing provision, including people experiencing ageing and cognitive change, architects and designers, housing experts, planners, builders and housing providers. Older people were integral to DesHCA and their health was at its heart. The project designed homes that act as demonstrators and test-beds for innovations to support healthy cognitive ageing. These designs have been developed and evaluated from stakeholder points of view, then considered at a larger scale to examine their real-world feasibility. DesHCA is feeding directly into the UK and Scottish Government City Region Deal for Central Scotland (Stirling and Clackmannanshire), providing groundwork for local housing developments. The focus of this is sustainable, lifetime health, community and economic development, addressing deprivation and inequality.
To achieve these aims, DesHCA took a co-production approach, with the whole team working to identify innovations that engage with their real-world experiences and aspirations. We used a range of data collection methods and produced analyses informed the design of the demonstrator houses. These designs evolved as stakeholders interacted with them and provided feedback from their different points of view. To collect data, we asked older people to map and evaluate their own homes and to experience and comment on new design features using virtual reality (VR). They then collaborated with builders, architects and housing providers in VR workshops to identify practical, realistic and affordable designs that can support healthy cognitive ageing, and therefore longer healthy, independent life. Partners came together in interactive workshops to convert designs into plans within a fictional town, building and retrofitting homes, creating services and managing budgets. We demonstrated how designs can work out in the real world, and how to bring together the various interests involved. Throughout, issues of costs were considered, to inform business planning and help make decisions on implementation of the new designs.
The impact of DesHCA is achieved through showing what works in housing design for healthy cognitive ageing. Immediately, DesHCA will feed into the City Region Deal and longer term we will provide tools for future developers to inform their decisions about housing for healthy cognitive ageing. Throughout the project, disseminate findings were distributed to the housing, architecture and building sectors through stakeholder networks. We have published rigorous research findings to provide a peer reviewed, high quality research base for innovation. Thus the project goes beyond recommendations and guidance to provide evidence to support delivery at scale, grounded in the co-production approach that draws on the real experience, interests and imperatives that drive different stakeholders.
DesHCA's multidisciplinary team built capacity among early career researchers in research leadership, working across disciplines such as architecture and planning, economics, sociology and across sectors with a range of different industrial and professional stakeholders, such as housing workers, planners and construction companies.</p
Exploring the Impacts of Digitalisation in Professional Work: Metadata and Documentation, 2021-2022
No full textThis research drew on qualitative interview and time diary data with two professional service firms to investigate the ways in which digitalisation was reshaping experiences of work. Findings revealed that within organisations, digital technologies can be used in ways that may help to build inclusionary ways of working. Workers from these groups said they benefitted from increased flexibility and autonomy over where, when and how they work. For some, access to training through digital platforms was also beneficial. However, digitalised working also had downsides. In particular, it could lead to erosion of boundaries between work and home life, exacerbated by increased availability, connectivity and lack of clear expectations. For managers in particular, digitalised working could increase work intensity through an increased volume of communications from staff and clients. Remote working also posed challenges for networking and relationship building.
These findings highlight that digital inclusion is not only a policy issue but a question for firms, particularly as the impacts vary by sector, profession and workplace culture. As new digitalised working practices are adopted, firms should consider the impacts on different groups and how digital connectivity policies and guidelines can support inclusion goals.This research drew on qualitative interview and time diary data with two professional service firms to investigate the ways in which digitalisation was reshaping experiences of work. Findings revealed that within organisations, digital technologies can be used in ways that may help to build inclusionary ways of working. Workers from these groups said they benefitted from increased flexibility and autonomy over where, when and how they work. For some, access to training through digital platforms was also beneficial. However, digitalised working also had downsides. In particular, it could lead to erosion of boundaries between work and home life, exacerbated by increased availability, connectivity and lack of clear expectations. For managers in particular, digitalised working could increase work intensity through an increased volume of communications from staff and clients. Remote working also posed challenges for networking and relationship building.
These findings highlight that digital inclusion is not only a policy issue but a question for firms, particularly as the impacts vary by sector, profession and workplace culture. As new digitalised working practices are adopted, firms should consider the impacts on different groups and how digital connectivity policies and guidelines can support inclusion goals.</p
Addressing Health Pensions Database, 1860-1908
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.This data collection contains information on the health of 26,500 United Kingdom postal workers who retired between 1860 and 1908. Following the 1859 Superannuation Act, all postal workers serving for ten or more years were eligible for a pension, and those who had worked for less than years could apply for a one-off gratuity. The data were transcribed from the pension application forms submitted to the Treasury for approval when a worker either reached retirement age (60 years until 1892 when it rose to 65) or were medically incapable of performing their duties. Two types of data on the health of these workers have been transcribed from the pension forms. First, a table which provides the number of days off sick taken in each of the ten years prior to their retirement. Second, the cause of retirement, where the worker was retiring for medical reasons this cause had to be certified by a doctor. Additionally, information on each workers’ age at retirement, length of service, occupation and place of work has been transcribed from the pension forms. These data have all be checked and standardised, and the causes of retirement have been coded to ICD10h. Additional contextual information on local characteristics such as population density have been added. For a sub-set of the 26,500 retirees death dates have been traced and so information on survival post-retirement is included. These data provide a new dataset to examine morbidity and mortality across the entirety of the United Kingdom in the second half of the nineteenth century and the time of the epidemiological transition.Main Topics:Morbidity
Mortality
Occupation and other personal characteristics of postal workers</p
Shifting Forms of Governance and the Grassroots Politics of Separatism, 2022-2024
No full textThis project undertook comparative case studies in regions where separatist movements are in flux to understand perceptions of, and engagement in, separatist conflicts from the bottom-up. In-depth unstructured interviews were undertaken with individuals in Catalonia (Spain), Scotland and Wales to explore individuals’ perceptions of, and responses to, debates about secession. Participants were asked to take four photographs that captured their thoughts and feelings on the topic of 'independence'. These photographs were then discussed in a follow-up interview.WISERD celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Over time it has grown into an international research institute that develops the next generation of research leaders. Our research brings together different disciplines (geographers, economists, sociologists, data scientists, political scientists) to address important issues for civil society at national and international levels. Our social science core provides a strong foundation for working with other disciplines including environmental science, engineering and medicine to transform our understanding and approaches to key areas of public concern. Our aim is to provide evidence that informs and changes policy and practice. This Centre will build on all previous WISERD research activities to undertake an ambitious new research programme. Our focus will be on the concept of civic stratification. This is a way of looking at divisions in society by focusing on the rights and obligations and practices of citizens and the role of civil society organisations in addressing inequalities in those rights and obligations. We will examine and analyse instances where people do not have the same rights as others (for example people who are migrants or refugees). We will also look at examples of people and groups working together within civil society to win new rights; this is referred to as civic expansion. Examples might include campaigns for animal rights or concerns about robots and Artificial Intelligence. We will investigate situations where people have the same rights but experience differences in their ability to access those rights; sometimes referred to as civic gain and civic loss (for example some people are better able to access legal services than others). Lastly, we will explore how individuals and groups come together to overcome deficits in their rights and citizenship; sometimes referred to as forms of civil repair. This might include ways in which people are looking at alternative forms of economic organisation, at local sustainability and at using new technologies (platforms and software) to organise and campaign for their rights. Our centre will deliver across four key areas of activity. First our research programme will focus on themes that address the different aspects of civic stratification. We will examine trends in polarization of economic, political and social rights, looking at how campaigns for rights are changing and undertaking case studies of attempts to repair the fabric of civil life. Second, we will extend and deepen our international and civil society research partnerships and networks and by doing so strengthen our foundations for developing further joint research in the future. Third, we will implement an exciting and accessible 'knowledge exchange' programme to enable our research and evidence to reach, involve and influence as many people as possible. Fourth, we will expand the capacity of social science research and nurture future research leaders. All our research projects will be jointly undertaken with key partners including civil society organisations, such as charities, and local communities. The research programme is broad and will include the collection of new data, the exploitation of existing data sources and linking existing sets of data. The data will range from local detailed studies to large cross-national comparisons. We will make the most of our skills and abilities to work with major RCUK research investments. We have an outstanding track record in maximising research impact, in applying a wide range of research methods to real world problems. This exciting and challenging research programme is based on a unique, long standing and supportive relationship between five core universities in Wales and our partnerships with universities and research institutes in the UK and internationally. It addresses priority areas identified by the ESRC and by governments and is informed by our continued close links with civil society organisations.</p
Oral Histories with Gypsy and Traveller Community Members and Prisoners, Professional Interviews, and Crime Survey Data from the ESRC Project 'Gypsy and Traveller Experiences of Crime and Justice Since the 1960s', 2020-2023
No full textThe Realities Checked Study provides the first systematic and comprehensive account of the crime and criminal justice experiences of Gypsies and Travellers in England since the 1960s. Motivated by the need to challenge and critique popular stereotypes that portray Gypsies and Travellers as inherently criminal, the study seeks to provide a nuanced understanding of the community’s experiences with crime and the criminal justice system. The study’s primary aims were to examine: Gypsies’ and Travellers’ direct and vicarious perceptions of criminal victimisation, hate crimes, and offending; the role of perceived racism and discrimination in shaping offending behaviour and experiences with criminal justice; the impact of criminalisation, policing, punishment, and imprisonment on individuals and communities; and the rationales behind professional engagement with Gypsies and Travellers in the areas of crime, justice, and social policy.
Conducted between October 2020 and June 2023, this dataset employs a mixed-methods approach, including a crime survey of 400 participants of Gypsy and Traveller heritage, 40 oral histories with Gypsy and Traveller community members, 27 oral histories with Gypsy and Traveller prisoners, and interviews with 54 professionals working with Gypsy and Traveller communities. Research took place across England, including Leeds, Norfolk, the South-East (London, Sussex, and Surrey), Devon, and Cornwall. Participants included Gypsies and Travellers living roadside, on sites, on private plots, and in bricks-and-mortar housing. The crime survey focused on gathering data about the frequency of discrimination, racism, and crime experienced by Gypsies and Travellers. The oral histories explored participants’ life stories, including childhood, young adulthood, and experiences with crime. Professional interviews examined the work of professionals and organisations engaging with Gypsies and Travellers in relation to crime and criminal justice.Historical accounts show that since the arrival in England and Scotland of Romani Gypsies in the fifteenth century, and of Irish Travellers in the nineteenth century, they have been associated with criminal offending. Since then Gypsies and Travellers (G&Ts) have become entrenched in popular, media and political imaginations as criminal predators, bringing property crime, violence, fraud, tax evasion and anti-social behaviour to settled communities. Yet despite five centuries' of such categorisation, there is surprisingly no rigorous evidence assessing the validity of such claims nor systematic assessments of G&Ts' experiences of victimisation. No existing sources of evidence from self-report offending surveys, archival accounts, oral histories, ethnographic or qualitative research can provide an estimate of G&T patterns of offending. Neither can they tell us about how frequently G&Ts are the victims of non-racially motivated crime (e.g. assault, burglary, theft) or hate crimes. This is particularly concerning given the Global Attitudes Survey found 50% of UK respondents held negative views of G&Ts, over double the proportion holding unfavourable attitudes towards Muslims, who have often been the victims of hate crimes. Estimates of offending, victimisation and hate crime are available for other minority ethnic groups.
This interdisciplinary study will produce the first comprehensive, historicized account of G&T experiences of victimisation, crime and criminal justice in two urban and two rural areas of England. Specifically, it will comprise:
(i) a crime survey involving researchers and G&T interviewers looking at G&T victimisation by personal crime (e.g. assault, hate crime) and crimes against the household/family (e.g. burglary, fraud). It will assess attitudes to, and contact with, the police (including stop and search), courts, probation, and prisons. The survey will also ask questions about G&Ts' use of alcohol/drugs and involvement in property, fraud, and violent offences as offenders. It will survey self-ascribing G&Ts who vary by gender, age and settlement (roadside living, official/private caravan sites, unauthorised encampments, and private/social housing);
(ii) community and prisoner oral histories to investigate whether offending over individual lifetimes is linked to experiences of racism and discrimination, and to explore the effects of actions by the police, courts, probation and prisons on G&T individuals and communities;
(iii) interviews with local professionals who have engaged with G&Ts in a variety of contexts, both operationally and strategically (e.g. police officers, Victim Support, housing officers, councillors, Police and Crime Commissioners). These will seek to find out the ways in which G&Ts and their lifestyles are understood and responded to in formal policies and operationally on the ground, as well as documenting where support services may need to be targeted in criminal justice and other service provision; and
(iv) archival research of governmental and other publically available historical sources, including council committee meeting minutes, county surveys of G&Ts' experience of policing and local petitions against official sites.
Taken together, these methods will provide, for the first time, numerical estimates of both victimisation and offending, whilst also illuminating the meaning attached to them by G&Ts, including the place of perceptions of racism in G&Ts' behaviour and experiences. The study will provide insight into how criminal justice and other statutory agencies have historically dealt with G&Ts compared with the contemporary picture. In this way it will build a sensitive account of G&Ts' experiences of crime as victims as well as offenders which can respond to the negative stereotyping of G&Ts drawing on rigorous evidence. This will inform policy and practice so as to reduce the harms of crime for all those affected, in both G&T and non-G&T communities.</p
Heat Risk and Resilience Assessment in the UK, 2022
No full textHeatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense, yet many countries remain inadequately prepared to manage their impacts. Existing heat risk plans and responses often fail to account for the complex interdependencies among the various causes and impact pathways of heat waves.
Effective planning requires a system-level understanding of these interdependencies to identify strategic entry points for action. This research employs a participatory system mapping approach to explore the interconnections among causes, impacts, and response actions during the UK heatwave events of summer 2022. Cognitive maps were developed shortly after the events, incorporating input from 38 stakeholders across sectors involved in the heatwave response. These maps informed a forensic disaster analysis designed to provide a holistic understanding of the heatwave’s causes, impacts, and adaptation measures.
By analysing the interdependencies among these factors, we identified cascading effects and amplifiers that significantly intensified heat risk in the UK. Notably, we find that the primary heatwave impacts were often indirect, emerging or worsening due to cascading effects such as wildfires, drought, transportation disruptions, and the overburdening of first responders. In many cases, adaptation measures were reactive, addressing isolated, short-term impacts, while proactive, system-level approaches tackling interconnected impacts and root causes—such as vulnerable buildings, at-risk populations, and behavioural barriers—were largely absent. Additionally, we found notable variations in heat risk perceptions among groups. While individual sectors displayed a limited understanding of the broader heat risk system, a system-level perspective emerged through the aggregation of cognitive maps. The implications for adaptation research and policy are discussed.The Place-Based Climate Action Network (P-CAN) seeks to strengthen the links between national and international climate policy and local delivery through place-based climate action. The Network is innovative in its focus on local decision making. Clear policy signals by the government are essential, but the key to continued climate action increasingly lies at the local level, with the participation of local actors, businesses and citizens. Important decisions about low-carbon business opportunities, renewable energy investment, urban transport, energy management, buildings efficiency and the management of climate risks are decentralised and taken across the UK.
P-CAN is about engagement, impact, and the co-creation and sharing of knowledge. The Network has the following components:
1. Place-based climate change commissions: We will develop three city-level climate commissions, in Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds. The concept is currently being piloted in Leeds as an innovative structure for sustained two-way, multi-level engagement between national and local policy and practice. We will work on the replication of these commissions in other local context to further broaden our reach.
2. Thematic platforms: There will be two theme-based platforms, on business engagement and green finance. These virtual networks will focus on two stakeholder groups that are particularly important for place-based climate action. They will be co-created with representatives from the business and sustainable finance community.
3. The P-CAN Flexible Fund: We will open the Network to the wider community of climate change researchers and research users by commissioning 20-30 small grants. The grants will be awarded competitively, with a focus on engagement activities, user-oriented analysis, innovative approaches and support for early-career researchers.
4. Communication and user-oriented research synthesis: An active outreach strategy will connect the place-based activities and inform wider climate action by co-producing, synthesising and communicating decision-relevant analysis. This programme of user-oriented outreach will leverage the work of P-CAN's host institutions and other ESRC investments.
P-CAN is led by an experienced team of senior academics from a diversity of backgrounds. They all have strong track records of engaging with decision processes at the local, national and/or international level. Most of them have combined academic achievements with careers in business, finance, or international development. The Network PI is a former member of the Committee on Climate Change.
The core team is supported by a full-time Network Manager, a Communications Officer and a group of Network Analysts who will provide analytical, administrative and logistics support for the five platforms (three local commissions and two thematic platforms). P-CAN will, to the maximum extent possible, leverage the existing administrative, research and engagement capabilities of its host institutions, including the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation, and the Centre for Sustainability and Environmental Governance in Belfast.
P-CAN will be successful if it can inform the climate change decisions of stakeholders across the five platforms. We will focus on activities that support key UK policy objectives and their local implementation, such as the city strategies of Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds, the UK Industrial Strategy, the Clean Growth Strategy, the statutory carbon budgets, the 25-year Environment Plan, the next Climate Change Risk Assessment, the recommendations of the UK Green Finance Task Force and the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) as well as the climate strategies of Scotland and Northern Ireland. P-CAN will respond flexibly to evolving demands. This will ensure that the platforms we create become self-sustaining and can be replicated elsewhere.</p
Growing Up in Scotland: Cohort 1: Sweep 4, 2008-2009: Special Licence Access
No full textAbstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study is a large-scale longitudinal social survey which follows the lives of several groups of Scottish children from infancy through childhood and adolescence. It aims to provide important information on children, young people and their families in Scotland. The study forms a central part of the Scottish Government's strategy for the long-term monitoring and evaluation of its policies for children and young people, with a specific focus on the early years. The study seeks both to describe the characteristics, circumstances and experiences of children in their early years in Scotland and, through its longitudinal design, to generate a better understanding of how children's start in life can shape their longer term prospects and developmentSince 2005 fieldwork has been undertaken by the Scottish Centre for Social Research. The survey design for Birth Cohort 1 consisted of recruiting the parents of an initial total of 5,217 children aged 10 months old in 2005 and interviewing them annually until their child reached age six. Further fieldwork was then undertaken at ages 8, 10, 12, 14 and 17-18 with a sample boost added at age 12.Data for sweeps 1-9 were collected via an in-home, face-to-face interview with self-complete sections. Fieldwork for sweep 10 was disrupted due to the COVID pandemic. As a result, the final portion of the data was collected via web and telephone questionnaires. Sweep 11 data were gathered via web, telephone and face-to-face surveys of cohort members and their parent/carer.Further information about the survey may be found on the Growing Up in Scotland website.In May 20205, data and documentation for Cohort 1, Sweeps 1-11 were released as individual studies (SNs 9373-9383 and 9386-9387). Previously they were held under one study (SN 5760) which has been withdrawn from the data catalogue.Main Topics:The main carer questionnaire covered the following topics:household informationnon-resident parentsparental supportparenting styles and activitiestransition to pre-schooltransition to primary schoolchildcarechild health and developmentactivities with otherswork, employment and incomeaccommodation and transportheight and weight measurementsA topic overview covering all sweeps, is available on the GUS website.</div
Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations Survey: Public Perceptions of Climate Change and Low Carbon Lifestyles in the UK, Brazil, Sweden and China, Wave 1, 2020
No full textThis online survey was part of the visioning research conducted at the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. The research project, of which this survey forms a crucial part of is titled 1.4. Public perceptions of climate change and transformative action over time. The aim of this project is to examine public perceptions of climate change in the context of the Centre’s core principles, diet, transport, material consumption, thermal comfort, by conducting multi-wave, multi-country (UK, Brazil, China, Sweden) surveys.
This current survey forms the first wave of a survey that was run annually for 4 consecutive years, including tracking items and bespoke, flexible modules every year. The main aim of this survey wave 1 was to map climate change beliefs and engagement with the 4 key areas (diet, transport, material consumption, thermal comfort) across the UK, Brazil, China and Sweden. The survey results help to identify concerns, social dynamics help to understand people's engagement with the fourThe Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) will be a global hub for understanding the profound changes required to address climate change. At its core, is a fundamental question of enormous social significance: how can we as a society live differently - and better - in ways that meet the urgent need for rapid and far-reaching emission reductions?
While there is now strong international momentum on action to tackle climate change, it is clear that critical targets (such as keeping global temperature rise to well within 2 degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels) will be missed without fundamental transformations across all parts of society. CAST's aim is to advance society's understanding of how to transform lifestyles, organisations and social structures in order to achieve a low-carbon future, which is genuinely sustainable over the long-term.
Our Centre will focus on people as agents of transformation in four challenging areas of everyday life that impact directly on climate change but have proven stubbornly resistant to change: consumption of goods and physical products, food and diet, travel, and heating/cooling. We will work across multiple scales (individual, community, organisational, national and global) to identify and experiment with various routes to achieving lasting change in these challenging areas. In particular, we will test how far focussing on 'co-benefits' will accelerate the pace of change. Co-benefits are outcomes of value to individuals and society, over and above the benefits from reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These may include improved health and wellbeing, reduced waste, better air quality, greater social equality, security, and affordability, as well as increased ability to adapt and respond to future climate change. For example, low-carbon travel choices (such as cycling and car sharing) may bring health, social and financial benefits that are important for motivating behaviour and policy change. Likewise, aligning environmental and social with economic objectives is vital for behaviour and organisational change within businesses.
Our Research Themes recognise that transformative change requires: inspiring yet workable visions of the future (Theme 1); learning lessons from past and current societal shifts (Theme 2); experimenting with different models of social change (Theme 3); together with deep and sustained engagement with communities, business and governments, and a research culture that reflects our aims and promotes action (Theme 4).
Our Centre integrates academic knowledge from disciplines across the social and physical sciences with practical insights to generate widespread impact. Our team includes world-leading researchers with expertise in climate change behaviour, choices and governance. We will use a range of theories and research methods to fill key gaps in our understanding of transformation at different spatial and social scales, and show how to target interventions to impactful actions, groups and moments in time.
We will partner with practitioners (e.g., Climate Outreach, Greener-UK, China Centre for Climate Change Communication), policy-makers (e.g., Welsh Government) and companies (e.g., Anglian Water) to develop and test new ways of engaging with the public, governments and businesses in the UK and internationally. We will enhance citizens', organisations' and societal leaders' capacity to tackle climate change through various mechanisms, including secondments, citizens' panels, small-scale project funding, seminars, training, workshops, papers, blog posts and an interactive website. We will also experiment with transformations within academia itself, by trialling sustainable working practices (e.g., online workshops), being 'reflexive' (studying our own behaviour and its impacts on others), and making our outputs and data publically available.</p
Designing for Healthy Cognitive Ageing Project: Dementia-Supportive Home Environments Survey Data, 2023
No full textThe data archive holds results of an online survey of 356 people living with/affected by dementia or cognitive change. The survey was based on the Environments for Ageing and Dementia Design Assessment Tool of the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling. The survey aimed to assess the extent to which existing homes lived in by people living with/affected by dementia contain or do not contain cognitively supportive design features. Respondents were sampled through existing organisations for people living with/affected by dementia, notably 'Join Dementia Research' and also through social media.As we age, many of us will experience cognitive changes, and for some of us, these will develop into dementia. We know that people's homes can make the experience of cognitive changes more difficult, or can enable continuing inclusion and sense of self-worth and self-esteem. DesHCA worked with people experiencing ageing and cognitive change and those who design and develop housing. DesHCA identified housing innovations that can support living better for longer with cognitive change. Our emphasis on healthy cognitive ageing goes beyond narrow conceptions of 'dementia-friendly design' into a more expansive and inclusive approach to housing innovation.
The multidisciplinary DesHCA team involved stakeholders from all areas of housing provision, including people experiencing ageing and cognitive change, architects and designers, housing experts, planners, builders and housing providers. Older people were integral to DesHCA and their health was at its heart. The project designed homes that act as demonstrators and test-beds for innovations to support healthy cognitive ageing. These designs have been developed and evaluated from stakeholder points of view, then considered at a larger scale to examine their real-world feasibility. DesHCA is feeding directly into the UK and Scottish Government City Region Deal for Central Scotland (Stirling and Clackmannanshire), providing groundwork for local housing developments. The focus of this is sustainable, lifetime health, community and economic development, addressing deprivation and inequality.
To achieve these aims, DesHCA took a co-production approach, with the whole team working to identify innovations that engage with their real-world experiences and aspirations. We used a range of data collection methods and produced analyses informed the design of the demonstrator houses. These designs evolved as stakeholders interacted with them and provided feedback from their different points of view. To collect data, we asked older people to map and evaluate their own homes and to experience and comment on new design features using virtual reality (VR). They then collaborated with builders, architects and housing providers in VR workshops to identify practical, realistic and affordable designs that can support healthy cognitive ageing, and therefore longer healthy, independent life. Partners came together in interactive workshops to convert designs into plans within a fictional town, building and retrofitting homes, creating services and managing budgets. We demonstrated how designs can work out in the real world, and how to bring together the various interests involved. Throughout, issues of costs were considered, to inform business planning and help make decisions on implementation of the new designs.
The impact of DesHCA is achieved through showing what works in housing design for healthy cognitive ageing. Immediately, DesHCA will feed into the City Region Deal and longer term we will provide tools for future developers to inform their decisions about housing for healthy cognitive ageing. Throughout the project, disseminate findings were distributed to the housing, architecture and building sectors through stakeholder networks. We have published rigorous research findings to provide a peer reviewed, high quality research base for innovation. Thus the project goes beyond recommendations and guidance to provide evidence to support delivery at scale, grounded in the co-production approach that draws on the real experience, interests and imperatives that drive different stakeholders.
DesHCA's multidisciplinary team built capacity among early career researchers in research leadership, working across disciplines such as architecture and planning, economics, sociology and across sectors with a range of different industrial and professional stakeholders, such as housing workers, planners and construction companies.</p
Maladaptive Cognition in Depression, 2022
No full textThis project aims to improve our understanding of the maladaptive cognitions driving depressive symptoms. To gain a more mechanistic understanding of the neurocognitive bases of (mal)adaptive cognition, we will leverage computational models of behaviour. This overarching goal will be achieved by conceptualising maladaptive depressive cognition as maladaptive attributions. To test this we will measure:
(a) biases in the attribution of positive and negative events to the self vs. external causes;
(b) biases in the metacognitive evaluations of decision confidence and their potential misattribution to action-outcome learning.
Using cutting-edge analysis methods, across online, clinical, and neuroimaging studies, this project will achieve the following objectives:
1. Clarify the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying adaptive attribution (of external events and of metacognitive signals), in healthy participants.
2. Identify behavioural markers of maladaptive attribution related to depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample.
3. Test the specificity of markers of maladaptive attribution to depressive symptoms, relative to other common mental health problems.
4. Test the clinical relevance of markers of maladaptive attribution.CONTEXT
Depression is the single leading cause of disability worldwide and a major public health problem. Even with the best treatments, around 30% of patients remain unwell, demonstrating the importance of improving our understanding of depression. Decades of research in clinical psychology suggests that vulnerability to depression is associated with negative cognitive styles, such as attributing negative events to stable and global causes, often blaming oneself, and maladaptive metacognitive beliefs (about one's own cognitive processes), such as low self-confidence. These biases are a focus of psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), but the assessment of maladaptive depressive cognition is limited by imprecise measurement, relying on introspection and self-report.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
This project aims to improve our understanding of the maladaptive cognitions driving depressive symptoms. To gain a more mechanistic understanding of the neurocognitive bases of (mal)adaptive cognition, we will leverage computational models of behaviour. This overarching goal will be achieved by conceptualising maladaptive depressive cognition as maladaptive attributions. To test this we will measure:
(a) biases in the attribution of positive and negative events to the self vs. external causes;
(b) biases in the metacognitive evaluations of decision confidence and their potential misattribution to action-outcome learning.
Using cutting-edge analysis methods, across online, clinical, and neuroimaging studies, this project will achieve the following objectives:
1. Clarify the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying adaptive attribution (of external events and of metacognitive signals), in healthy participants.
2. Identify behavioural markers of maladaptive attribution related to depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample.
3. Test the specificity of markers of maladaptive attribution to depressive symptoms, relative to other common mental health problems.
4. Test the clinical relevance of markers of maladaptive attribution.
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS
Improving our understanding of the mechanisms that drive maladaptive cognition in depression, and underpin attributional processes in healthy participants, will constitute an important scientific contribution to the fields of clinical psychology and cognitive and computational neuroscience. Given the high societal cost of depression, this research is of high societal and clinical relevance. Disseminating our findings to the wider society will demonstrate how a better understanding of basic cognitive processes may translate to understanding everyday behaviour. Presenting our project and findings to people with mental health problems, including service users, will allow receiving their feedback on our experimental designs and findings, and help broaden the perspective for future research. The work will also be regularly disseminated to academic audiences, through publications and conferences, across the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and mental health. Engaging with clinical experts, by organising an interdisciplinary workshop, will help increase our clinical impact, establish novel collaborations, and receive expert feedback. Identifying behavioural and neural markers related to maladaptive cognition in depression offers a unique opportunity to develop novel tools that may subsequently help to refine differential diagnosis and improve treatment selection, as well as provide a foundation for the development of novel psychological interventions.</p