Childhood psychological adjustment following parental brain injury: the role of loss, trauma and parental grief Expand University of Surrey Has your partner experienced a brain injury of any kind? Do you and your partner have one or more children aged between 7 and 17? If so, please consider taking part in this research What is the purpose of this study?Research shows that following a brain injury, family members may go through a period of grieving and loss, and children can experience emotional and behavioural changes. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between a child’s psychological functioning, following a parental brain injury, and the experience of grief and loss in the non-brain injured parent. This research hopes to provide understanding for the family experience of a brain injury, which would help to guide future support available to families. Who can take part? You can take part in this study if you are:• an adult aged 18 or over• a parent or caregiver to one or more children aged between 7 and 17 years• able to understand written English• a partner of an individual who has experienced a brain injury of any kindand your partner is:• a parent or caregiver to the same child/children• experienced a brain injury more than 6 months ago You would not be eligible to take part in this study if you or your child had a diagnosed pre-existing mental health illness prior to your partner’s brain injury. What does this study involve?You will be asked to complete online questionnaires on the platform ‘Qualtrics’. This involves answering questions about yourself, your child and your partner, and should take approximately 20 minutes to complete. All responses are submitted anonymously, and no personal identifiable information is collected. How do I take part?Please follow the link to the study page: https://tinyurl.com/y6fo8jw8 Contact detailsThe researcher for this study is Poppy Harding. If you have any questions about this study, please contact Poppy by emailing [email protected] or by visiting twitter account @PsychPoppy Thank you for considering taking part in this research.
Exploring Real-World Memory in Autoimmune Encephalitis – Autobiographical Memory Expand PhD Researcher: Sarah Martin (Leeds Beckett University) Supervisor: Dr Kata Pauly-Takacs (Leeds Beckett University) Overview This study looks at how people who were treated for Autoimmune Encephalitis remember past personal memories (also known as autobiographical memory). We are aware that changes in the brain after encephalitis may result in ongoing problems with memory for some people. However, the types of difficulties that people have are under researched. When assessed in the clinic these memory difficulties may seem mild, but it is evident that they have significant impacts on day-to-day functioning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of patients’ real-world memory problems, with which we hope to inform their care and support needs. Who is invited to take part? We are inviting you to take part if you are 18-65 years old based in the UK had a previous diagnosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis and have completed treatment What do you have to do? Before you take part in the study, we will ask you to confirm a few details related to your diagnosis, if you can. There will be two parts to this study: You will be asked to take part in some brief assessments of memory and thinking ability which will last no longer than 1-1.5 hours in total. You will be asked to participate in an interview where you will recall memories from different time periods in your life from past to present. Each time period focuses on memories around specific themes (for example holiday, a work or school-related event). The interview can take up to 2 hours in total, but can be done in two sessions, if you prefer. The interview will be audio-recorded with your permission. This study will take place remotely, so you need to be comfortable with the use of: - a computer/tablet device - video-conferencing software (Skype, Teams or Zoom), or have someone to assist you with such technology. Alternatively, we may be able to arrange for face-to-face sessions if you are local to the Leeds area, if covid guidelines allow and if that is your preference. You will receive a £20 ‘love to shop’ voucher as a token of appreciation for giving up your time. Interested in taking part? If you are interested in taking part or would like more information on the study please contact the PhD Researcher, Sarah Martin at [email protected] or on 0113 812 5456.
Exploring Real-World Memory in Autoimmune Encephalitis – Self-reported memory experiences Expand PhD Researcher: Sarah Martin (Leeds Beckett University) Supervisor: Dr Kata Pauly-Takacs (Leeds Beckett University) Overview This study looks at how people who have been treated for Autoimmune Encephalitis perceive or experience their own memory in everyday situations. We are aware that changes in the brain after encephalitis may result in ongoing problems with memory for some people. However, the types of difficulties that people have are under researched. When assessed in the clinic these memory difficulties may seem mild, but it is evident that they have significant impacts on day-to-day functioning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of patients’ real-world memory problems, with which we hope to inform their care and support needs. Who is invited to take part? We are inviting you to take part if you are 18-65 years old based in the UK had a previous diagnosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis and have completed treatment. OR We are also looking for healthy participants (18-65 years based in the UK) without an Autoimmune Encephalitis diagnosis for the purpose of comparison What do you have to do? Before you take part in the study, we will ask you to confirm a few details related to your diagnosis, if you can (if you had a diagnosis of Autoimmune Encephalitis). You will then be asked to complete a memory questionnaire online which will take 15-20 minutes of your time. It will ask you to rate your experience in relation to how you use your memory and how satisfied you are with your memory in everyday situations. For example, the questionnaire asks you to rate the extent to which you agree with the following statements: ‘I am generally pleased with my memory ability’ ‘I worry that I will forget something important’ This study will take place online. We will send you a link to the questionnaire via email if you wish to take part. Interested in taking part? If you are interested in taking part or would like more information on the study please contact the PhD Researcher, Sarah Martin at [email protected] or on 0113 812 5456.
Is there a relationship between Post-Traumatic Stress and Post-Traumatic Growth in Parents of children with an Acquired Brain Injury? Expand University of East Anglia What is the purpose of this study?This study aims to look at the relationship between post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth in parents following their child’s acquired brain injury. When a child has a brain injury it can understandably be a traumatic event for some parents. How this effects people can vary. Some people might develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress including flashbacks, nightmares and feeling numb. Some might find new positive meanings in life despite their distress. This is called post-traumatic growth. In order to understand how to best support parents affected in this way, we are interested in finding out more about post-traumatic stress, post-traumatic growth and how they might be related. Can I take part?We are asking parents/primary caregivers of children aged 1-18 years who experienced an acquired brain injury at least 6 months ago to take part. Parents of children with any kind of ABI which is not getting worse, or where your child is not currently receiving major medical treatment (e.g. brain surgery, brain radiotherapy/chemotherapy) are eligible. We are inviting both parents of the same child to take part, but you can also take part without the child’s other parent, this is your choice.Sorry, but for this study we are not asking parents of children with progressive neurodegenerative illnesses to take part in the current study. Parents who find it difficult to understand written English would not be suitable for the current study. Do I have to take part?No, it is your choice whether you take part or not. If you decide to do so, please click next to continue. If you do not wish to participate, close this window. Please keep in mind that your participation in this study is voluntary so you can withdraw from the study at any time without explanation up until you submit your answers. What do I have to do?Please take your time to read and think about the information here before deciding to take part. If you decide you want to complete the survey, click “Next” at the bottom of this page.This will take you to a consent page. Please read this carefully, and if you consent to participate click “Agree”.Once you have clicked “Agree” the survey will start. You will need to complete all the questions. Please read the instructions for each set of questions. The questions will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. You will then need to submit your answers by clicking “Submit”. We are also inviting you to participate in a second online survey in about 6 months’ time so we can see how things might have changed for you. Again, this will be in the form of an online survey. This second survey will take 10 minutes to complete. You will be given the option to “opt in” to this second survey at the end of the questionnaires. You will be asked to provide an email address so you can be contacted in 6 months’ time. Please keep in mind that this is optional, you do not have to take part in this second part of the study. What are the possible disadvantages or risks of taking part?We do not expect that the study will cause you any harm or risk by taking part. It may be possible that the study causes you to think about personal upsetting matters, including difficult thoughts and feelings. If this does happen, a list of support services will be provided which you can contact for extra support. If you withdraw from the study, this can be downloaded from XXX. What will happen to my information?Since you will not be asked to provide any personally identifiable information, all the data collected from this study will be anonymous. The data will be held by the research team at the University of East Anglia and may be shared securely with other researchers.You can withdraw from the study at any point without having to give a reason, up until you click submit. To do this simply close the browser or survey. However, you cannot withdraw once you have clicked submit as responses are anonymous, so it will not be possible to identify individual responses. If you choose to opt in to the second part of the study, your email address will be held securely until the second part of the study has finished. It will then be confidentially deleted before data analysis. What will happen to the results of this study?We plan to present the results of this study at conferences, in a peer-reviewed journal and using social media. No participants will be identifiable in any of these cases. If you would like to receive a copy of the final findings, please contact [email protected] with your request. Who is organising the research?This study is being organised by Abigail Perkins, Dr Fergus Gracey and Dr Kiki Mastronyannopoulou at the UEA. The study is also being supported by Dr Suzanna Watson and Dr Kate Psaila at the Cambridge Centre for Paediatric Neuropsychological Rehabilitation (CCPNR). Who has reviewed this study?This study has been reviewed independently by colleagues and granted ethical approval by FMH Ethics committee at the University of East Anglia. How can I find out more?You can contact the research team: Abigail Perkins Dr Fergus Gracey[email protected] [email protected] If you have any concerns or complaints, please contact: Prof Niall Broomfield, Head of Department[email protected]
Participants with prosopagnosia needed for research Expand What is this study about?The aim of this study is to shed further light on self-recognition, by investigating potential temporal recovery solutions to impaired self-face recognition in prosopagnosia. The study will involve administering a self-recognition task to individuals with prosopagnosia. Who is conducting the study?The study team is formed of three researchers in the Department of Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge - Dr Flavia Cardini, Dr Peter Hills and Dr Fiona Ashworth. Who are we looking to recruit?We are looking to recruit people with prosopagnosia following an acquired brain injury, aged 18-75 years. What is involved?Suitable participants would be required to attend one day of computer based tasks (with multiple breaks where needed) which could take place either in Cambridge, London or the participant’s home. Participants will be invited to perform a number of computer based tasks including a self-recognition task where they will look at different pictures of either their own face or someone else’s and will be asked to decide whether the face is their own or the other’s. The overall experiment will take around 3 hours and will be divided in four sections across the day. What do I do if I would like to take part?If you are interested in taking part, or you would like further details, contact: Dr Flavia Cardini ([email protected]) Dr Fiona Ashworth ([email protected]) Telephone: 0845 196 2346/5105
Study predicting children’s cognition after acquired brain injury – healthy controls needed Expand What is this research study about?In this study we will use brain scans (MRI) to see whether they help us predict how children with an injury to the brain in early life develop when they are older. Brain injuries may result from head trauma, or illnesses, such as stroke, tumours, encephalitis or may be present from birth or hereditary. We will look at scans of both children and teenagers with a brain injury and without. Who are we looking to recruit?We are looking for children and adolescents aged up to 13 years old with no known brain injury to take part in a study. We want to help doctors predict the difficulties that children with brain injury may have later in life, by looking at the differences in brain scans and developmental skills between children with a brain injury and those without. What is involved? Child MRI Scans – a safe non-invasive way of taking a picture of the brain, using research scanners at either Aston Brain Centre or Birmingham Children’s Hospital Family assessments – questionnaires and interviews about the caregiver and child Child assessments - Two years after your child’s scan, we will contact you to arrange an appointment for developmental follow-up assessments; this involves play based assessments to find out more about thinking skills and development Interested? This research is being conducted by a research team at Aston University. If you are interested in taking part and would like more information, then please get in contact with the research team. You can contact us by telephone +44 (0) 121 204 3090 or by email [email protected]