Bringing expertise together will help to transform lives in healthcare
Vincent Mckay describes how Glasgow Caledonian University is developing new models of collaboration
Transformational change in how health and social care educators, researchers and practitioners collaborate is critical to the future enhancement of our healthcare and social care services.
While continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of current practice to meet the increasingly multi-faceted needs of our health and social care populations, we need to explore and identify new interventions and models of working, underpinned and enhanced by robust research.
Finding new models of collaboration that have been informed through active involvement of our patients, communities, health and social care services and our academic communities will require new approaches to working. Approaches, however, which place our patients and communities at the centre of such activity at all times.
Here at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), our School of Health and Life Sciences has a strong national and international reputation for its research and education.
Its health and social care-related academic disciplines are consistently represented in top league table positions and GCU was named in the top 20 universities in the UK for allied health research at world-leading and internationally excellent standards in the last Uk-wide Research Excellence Framework process in 2014. In particular, our research contribution to public health and managing long-term conditions is recognised as internationally excellent and, in some areas, world-leading.
With such plaudits, we understand that, as the University for the Common Good, we have a responsibility and a social mission to transform lives and communities through the transfer and application of our knowledge and expertise.
Most recently, and as an example of the transformational change required, we have cemented a landmark partnership with NHS Lanarkshire, whereby units in Monklands, Wishaw General and Hairmyres Hospitals will become University Hospitals.
In areas such as healthy ageing or long-term health conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetes, HIV and sexual health and substance use and misuse, patients and communities across Lanarkshire will benefit from care and intervention.
Leading academics working alongside healthcare staff, doctors, nurses, allied-professionals and patients will both improve existing service and co-create new models of service delivery and intervention informed by robust research and evaluation.
This, in turn, will inform and develop future health and social care practice and practitioners.
Already initiatives are under way to improve access to healthcare, such as the University’s Physiotherapy Clinic, which works to complement services for NHS patients.
By opening up more channels for people to access the services they require, we are playing our part to help improve access to health and social care services.
In other areas, GCU’S Professor of Ageing and Health, Dawn Skelton, a specialist in exercise intervention to reduce falls and promote active ageing, is working with healthcare professionals to address one of the key health challenges facing its ageing population.
Byimprovingandraisingawareness of the need to improve mobility in hospital patients, Professor Skelton’s work, such as the Functional Fitness MOT developed at GCU, will feed into the strategies adopted which look after elderly patients to help to improve their outcomes.
Research shows that improving activity and exercise in older people cannot be underestimated in understanding the components of fitness needed to age well and live independently.
By working closely with our Lanarkshire colleagues and as the partnership develops, we hope this research and its messages