The integration of Work Coaches (WCs) & Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) into UK General Practice (GP) provides an innovative approach to bridging the gap between health & employment services. We now reflect on the findings of our recent study led by Shriti Patani, Lara Shemtob & Kabir Varghese in collaboration with colleagues from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London. The study explored the benefits & challenges of integrating emplyment support services in primary care from the perspectives of GPs & work coaches. What’s the context? Employment is a critical social determinant of health, with unemployment linked to poorer physical & mental wellbeing & reduced quality of life. Traditionally, individuals seeking employment support access services through Jobcentres. However, barriers including stigma or lack of awareness - especially in people with disabilities or long-term health conditions - could limit e
Updates on my experience working on the vitamin D study In my previous blog, I described my experience working on the vitamin D research project as part of my Student Selected Component (SCP). This is a project organised by the River Island Academic Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health in collaboration with the Imperial Self-Care Academic Research Unity (SCARU), aiming to find out more about what people in the UK know and think about vitamin D, using an electronic questionnaire. It falls under the category of “formative research”, which is research aiming to gather data useful for the development and implementation of health initiatives(1). In the first week of my SCP attachment, I was mainly involved with the questionnaire, as I described in my last blog entry. In the following three weeks, I continued developing the questionnaire and I also worked on the study protocol, a step necessary to get ethics approval. In this blog, I describe my experience in developing a study pro