-

What are the Challenges and Opportunities in Caring Dyad Research?

Speakers:

Dolly Sud, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust/Aston University

Bio: "Jonathan is Professor of Sociology at Nord University, Norway, Visiting Professor at Aston University, UK. and a Docent at the Sociology Department, Helsinki University, Finland. Before joining Nord in January 2021, he was a Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston University. Previously he was a Professorial Fellow in the Institute of Government and Public Management in Warwick Business School and led the University of Warwick MPA. Jonathan established and, as Chief Executive, led the National NHS Centre for Involvement from 2006-2009 funded by the UK Department of Health. Jonathan’s main research interests relate to public participation and lay experience in policy making and service development particularly in relation to health and environmental policy. He supported the development of Public Health England’s public involvement strategy, and chaired the Public Health England Equality Forum. He helped develop and deliver a patient and public involvement strategy for the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service and is building metrics to measure the impact of patient and public involvement in research for the clinical research networks within the National Institute for Health Research. Jonathan has more than 100 publications including three co-authored books has received funding from the ESRC, the Finnish Academy and a range of other public sources. He is involved in a number of international and national research and development projects that focus particularly on the evidence base relating to the impact of patient and public involvement."

There has been much growth in the interest in and use of family-level and dyadic level theories and methodologies to explore the influence of social relationships on health and the influence of health on social relationships. Social relationships include those with romantic partners; friends; siblings; and children; these individuals play a significant role in the physical health; mental health; and well-being of a patient. An important part of this includes medicines optimisation and illness management. Studying health and well-being and consideration of both partners in the context of these close social relationships is important in health research; both partners become the unit of study - also known as a caring dyad. The aim of this session is to provide an introduction and overview as to how caring dyads might be used in medicines optimisation and illness management research and some of the opportunities and challenges associated with using this approach.