Jo Griffin is the Strategic Lead for Occupational Therapy in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, Swansea Bay University Health Board
Her research interests are practice based research and application of research in practice. As a strategic service lead, her aim is to support clinicians in taking their questions from the workplace through to research. This involves a continuum of methodology starting with service evaluation through audit, outcome measures and quality improvement methodology. Recent examples include staff engaging students on placement, supporting staff to undertake MSc and other personal development routes that incorporate service evaluation. She also supports the utilisation of research to promote best clinical practice and to identify research areas within clinical practice which ultimately explore the value of OT to the wider population.
Dr Catherine Purcell is a Reader in the School of Healthcare Sciences at Cardiff University. She is an Associate Theme Lead for the College of Biomedical Life Sciences (BLS) Population Health research theme and the lead for research and development in Occupational Therapy. Catherine is a Chartered psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society who is very passionate about supporting a Welsh occupational therapy research environment and supporting occupational therapists to undertake research and service development activities. She is predominantly a quantitative researcher, although typically uses mixed method approaches and gets very excited about co-production. Her personal research interests include children, young people and adults with neurodiversity (including Developmental Coordination Disorder, Developmental Language Disorder, Dyslexia, ADHD and ASD) and she has been conducting research in this field for over 12 years. Catherine collaborates both nationally and internationally and she sits on the UK DCD Committee and is the Vice-Chair of the DCD International Society for Research and Advocacy. Catherine is also a member of the Neurodevelopmental Conditions (Welsh) Ministerial Clinical Advisory Group.
Laura Ingham is currently Research and Development Lead for Occupational Therapy at Swansea Bay University Health Board alongside a part-time clinical team lead role in the Rheumatology Occupational Therapy Service. She is also a PhD student at Cardiff University and is exploring through a mixed methods study, evaluation methods used by Occupational Therapist’s in Primary Care.
Laura is passionate about evidencing the impact of occupational therapy and has been developing research interests in areas which have included hand therapy, rheumatology, evaluation methods with a focus on Value Based Health Care and primary care. She very much enjoys supporting and developing the skills of others and regularly collaborates with health board colleagues and partners from outside SBUHB to progress service evaluation and research projects.
Alex is a Stroke Association Postgraduate Fellow based at the Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University and Stroke Specialist Occupational Therapist, Wye Valley NHS Trust. Alex is the R&D lead for the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section Neurological Practice, Stroke Clinical Forum and a member of the steering group for the Royal College of Occupational Therapists & James Lind Alliance Research Priority Setting Partnership. He is passionate about the potential of occupational therapy research to provide the evidence to improve peoples’ lives.
His research ranges across many aspects of post-stroke care, treatment and rehabilitation and is focused on how to understand the outcomes of care or treatment from a service user’s perspective. Within his fellowship role, he is investigating standardised patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and is trialling a method of making PROMs easier to complete for stroke survivors.
Dr Bethan Edwards is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester. She has a dual identity as a research occupational therapist and researcher with lived experience of using mental health services, and her career to date reflects these two identities. She was an NHS Specialist Research Occupational Therapist at Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB between 2014 – 2022, having started her career as a clinical Occupational Therapist working in adult mental health social care. She has established relationships with research groups, centres and units in England and Wales, whom she works with on a freelance basis as a researcher with lived experience of mental health difficulties. Her research interests comprise emergency and urgent mental healthcare, iatrogenic harm associated with mental health services and mental health research ethics.
Rhiannon is Programme Lead for the part-time occupational therapy route at Wrexham Glyndwr University. Rhiannon is also admissions tutor, with an interest in widening participation and higher education. Rhiannon’s clinical interest focusses upon evidence informed practice for children, specifically using cognitive approaches.
She is currently studying for a Professional Doctorate in Health and Social Care with the University of Chester and is exploring transition into practice for new graduates.
Meysam is a second-year occupational therapy student at Wrexham Glyndwr University where he is a student rep for cohort 2020. Prior to his current studies, in occupational therapy, Meysam had obtained a PhD in Politics at Lancaster University. Meysam is interested in social occupational therapy.
Dr Tania Wiseman is an Associate Professor at Swansea University where she is the professional lead for occupational therapy. Tania is a passionate occupational therapy educator, and therefore passionate about supporting research and service development activities. She also has a strong interest in sustainability in the curriculum and in practice, and is a founding member of the Sustainable Healthcare Academic Research and Enterprise conference team and member of the Sustainable Occupational Therapy Education and Research group. She is predominantly a qualitative researcher, with a special interest in narrative methodologies and sustainable data sources. Her personal research interest focuses on leisure in later life, particularly more passive pastimes that are often overlooked in health research. She has been conducting research in this field for over 10 years.
Hannah is a first-year part-time occupational therapy student at Swansea University of the 2022 cohort. Hannah also works part-time as a generic therapy assistant practitioner in neuro-rehabilitation for Hywel Dda University Health Board in Carmarthenshire. She is excited to start her journey into research and has a broad range of interests, such as lived experience, communities and cognitive rehabilitation.
Rosa is a 2nd year BSc Occupational Therapy Student at Cardiff University. She is a student rep for her cohort, as well as a student mentor. Rosa has recently been accepted as an RCOT research champion. She is excited to get more involved in the world of research, and has a broad range of interests.