PPI Ignite Network at DCU Seed Funding 2023/2024
The PPI Ignite Network at DCU Seed Funding aims to advance meaningful Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) activities in Health and Social Care Research. Funding supports awardees to conduct research ‘with’ or ‘by’ members of the public at various stages in the research lifecycle. Three projects have been awarded to staff and students.
Ciara Brennan- Exploring the experiences of Cancer Related Cognitive Impairment in patients with
rare Cancer and the potential effects of exercise and nutrition. The PreCog Project
Ciara Brennan is a third year PhD student in DCU's School of Psychology. Ciara's research interests lie primarily in the use of positive behaviour supports and trauma-informed care as well as the impact of adverse childhood experiences on behaviour. Her research, broadly speaking, explores the use of positive behaviour supports for trauma-informed care of at-risk children in community settings. Ciara's current focus is on exploring the use of co-design methods for designing positive behaviour interventions. Children act as design partners throughout the project, ensuring design with children and not for children, maintaining a child-centered approach which is aligned with trauma-informed practice. This project will involve both the co-design of the positive behaviour intervention as well as an evaluation of its effect.
Aideen Scriney- Child-centered Behaviour Support: The development of positive behavioural interventions through cooperative inquiry with children.
My name is Aideen Scriney, and I am currently a third-year research PhD student at DCU School of Psychology. I previously completed both the BSc in Psychology and the MSc in Psychology and Wellbeing at DCU. I have a keen interest in the areas of cancer prehabilitation, and cancer related cognitive impairment. Cancer related cognitive impairment describes issues with things like attention, memory and focus that some patients can face. Prehabilitation is when interventions are given like exercise or nutrition support before surgery or treatment to help improve post-operative outcomes like physical and psychological wellbeing . My work aims to combine these two areas of research by understanding more about why these cognitive problems may occur, and if interventions like exercise and nutrition prehabilitation could help patients with this issue. The PPI group involved with the project to date have been a brilliant asset to our research group and I am excited to continue working with them through the final stages of my research project with the help of PPI Ignite .
Dr. Ashling Bourke (with Azza Warraitch) - Development of guidelines for meaningful involvement of young people in health research
Ashling is an Assistant Professor in Psychology and Human Development in the Institute of Education’s School of Human Development and is a member of the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship Education, DCU. Her research focuses on the intersection between Psychology and Children’s Rights. Her research focuses on meaningful child and youth engagement in research in health, climate change and education.
Azza is a PhD student at Trinity Centre for Global Health. Her PhD research is focused on the involvement of adolescents in health research using evidence syntheses, qualitative methods, and participatory methods. Before her doctoral studies, Azza earned an MPhil in Applied Psychology and worked as a research coordinator and junior research fellow with non-profit organisations in Pakistan on interventions to promote the mental health of school-going adolescents in rural Pakistan.
Congratulations to all the awardees. We look forward to hearing more about these exciting PPI projects in the future.
The next round of PPI Ignite Network at DCU Seed Funding will be announced during the Summer.