I worked with Prof Samantha Harrison and her team at Teesside University in Spring/Summer 2024 to help her plan and deliver a PPI process to co-create balance training for people with lung disease.
Sam is funded by NIHR for the B-PuRe project which aims to reduce the risk of falls in people with COPD. People with lung disease are twice as likely to fall compared to those without. This project is developing and testing an exercise-based activity programme to improve balance and reduce falls. We worked with people who have lung disease and also healthcare professionals to co-create a training programme which would be feasible, effective and fun.
I planned, facilitated and reported on two in-person workshops and two online surveys. In the first workshop/survey we focused on understanding what people with lung disease need and want from balance training. In the second workshop/survey we introduced the proposed activity (walking sports) and explored the practicalities of delivering it. For each workshop I wrote up a comprehensive report on the information we collected. I also helped the team create public-facing resources to help explain the research and connect with the participants including a video of the proposed activities and a summary report for participants (below).
Reflecting on the workshops Sam said “One of the privileges of an NIHR advanced fellowship is having the opportunity to work with experts who have diverse skills sets and bring their expertise into your area of research. This was why I wanted to work with Sarah. She designed the co-creation workshops and surveys in a way that was creative, fun and maximised the information we were able to obtain from a wide range of people. The workshops/surveys were planned with super efficiency and the results presented in a way that was easy to understand and disseminate. The information obtained has been invaluable in planning our complex balance intervention.“