Impact

The Centre for Applied Psychological Research (CAPR) aims to undertake work as applied psychologists that can make a real difference to society. The Centre members strive to ensure that the research methods and approaches used reflect the nature of real-world challenges being addressed and that the research findings are disseminated beyond an academic audience through activities in the practice setting, including:

• The publication of research outputs for professionals and community groups as well as professional journals
• The production of practice informing versions of research reports and posters aimed at non-academic audiences
• Presentations to service user groups and key stakeholders 
• The production of project websites

Listed below you can see some of the research activity the Centre has undertaken which has had an impact:

Research on Palliative and Supportive Care

Several projects have been completed in this area, and others are still on-going and approaching completion. The majority of the research undertaken has been funded by Macmillan Cancer Support, with research conducted by the Centre informing Macmillan’s own policy development and consequently feeding into Government strategies. CAPHR conducted a qualitative evaluation of the first national roll-out of the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) for community palliative care, which contributed to the promotion of the GSF by Macmillan and its later adoption as one of the recommended tools for professionals in the Government’s End of Life Care Strategy.

Evaluation of Health Living Partnerships

The Centre recently carried out evaluation research for two local Health Living Partnerships (HLPs); Paddock Pathways to Health in Huddersfield (PPH) and West Central Halifax Healthy Living Partnership (WCHHLP).

The evaluation work included an examination of the perceived impact of allotment gardening on health and wellbeing. Additionally, an evaluation of user experiences of a community gym was conducted with WCHHLP, and an examination of the relationship between community group membership and perceptions of the local community for PPH.
The research findings of this work were presented at public events within both communities, and have fed into the wider evaluation of the two HLPs for the Big Lottery Fund. In Halifax, the reports produced contributed to continued support for activities, and in the case of the allotment work, provided a foundation for further developments regarding food and gardening in the community.

The final research report on the Paddock Pathways to Health project is available to view, along with a book chapter reflecting upon the findings from both projects.