Imperial College London Primary Care

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Integrating Work Coaches for Employment Support in GP practices

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 -...

Updates on my experience working on the vitamin D study

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 i...

My research experience looking at vitamin D during my specialty choice placement

In the UK around 1 in 5 people have low levels of vitamin D. This can have important consequences because vitamin D is essential for bone health, and low levels can lead to bone problems such as osteoporosis and osteomalacia. Vitamin D is needed for everyone at all stages of life, from newborns and childhood, to adolescence, adulthood, and old age – which I find very exciting and fascinating. Being interested in paediatrics, endocrinology and neurology, and considering following a clinical academic path in the future, I decided to pursue a research project in vitamin D for my Specialty choice placement (SCP). Vitamin D deficiency Over the past few weeks I have been working with Dr Tanna, a consultant pharmacist, and Prof Blair, a consultant paediatrician with an interest in public health, on a research project about vitamin D aiming to understand the knowledge, attitudes and practices of people living in the UK. In the UK vitamin D deficiency is very common, and therefore the NHS...

Leveraging Community Assets to Tackle Social Isolation and Loneliness

Leveraging Community Assets to Tackle Social Isolation and Loneliness: A Needs Assessment of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham Executive Summary Dissertation by: Mr Hao Yang Pang, Master of Public Health (MPH) Co-Supervisors: Drs Marize Bakhet & Shamini Gnani Supervisor & Principal Investigator: Dr Austen El-Osta (ICREC #19IC5385) This study is an investigation of factors that influence the routine adoption & diffusion of evidence-based asset-based community development (ABCD) initiatives to tackle social isolation & loneliness (using LBH&F as a case study) INTRODUCTION · Social isolation may affect people of all ages, but it does not equate to loneliness and vice versa. Although acknowledged to be different concepts, social isolation and loneliness (SI&L) are often considered together. · SI&L is a r...