Healthcare Science Week 2024: get involved in our research

This Healthcare Science Week (11-15 March 2024) why not sign up to support one of our innovative research projects and help contribute to our important work in developing new treatments, understanding and preventing illnesses, and improving our patients' quality of life.

Published 11 March 2024

By taking part in our research you may have the chance to receive a new therapy, intervention or treatment. It may also help you gain a better understanding of your condition and feel more in control of your care.

We’re actively seeking participants for a number of research projects and you can find more information about our latest studies and how to get involved below.

Virtual Reality therapy trial

Phoenix Virtual Reality therapy is for people attending psychosis services, aged between 16 and 30 years old, who are feeling low in self-confidence. The Virtual Reality therapy is an easy to use, step-by-step programme that provides experiences to help build up positive self-beliefs.

To take part in this trial please contact research@berkshire.nhs.uk quoting ‘Phoenix’ study. 

Learning Disability study

This research aims to explore the impact that COVID-19 has had on the lives of people with a learning disability. We’re looking for participants who have a diagnosed learning disability and have been supported by someone in Berkshire Healthcare’s Learning Disability Service to talk about their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is also recruiting relatives, paid carers, GPs, Berkshire health and social care workers, or members of staff who work in the Berkshire Healthcare Learning Disability service about how the pandemic impacted their role in supporting a person/people with a learning disability.

To register your interest or take part, please email research@berkshire.nhs.uk quoting ‘Experiences of COVID-19’ study

Dementia study

Dementia can have a great impact on the lives of people living with the condition and their caregivers. As it progresses, the person with dementia will experience more difficulties and will gradually become more dependent on others. This is usually accompanied with greater loss in memory and thinking abilities than are experienced by other people of the same age. This pilot study will consider how these changes in the memory and thinking skills, or cognition, relate to changes that can be determined from blood samples. This study is recruiting participants aged 50 years and above who live in Berkshire and have been diagnosed with dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment, or have reported to their GP with memory complaints. We’re also looking for cognitively healthy individuals aged over 50 as part of this comparison study.

To register your interest or take part, please email research@berkshire.nhs.uk quoting ‘FAST’ study

Online therapy for carers

This study is looking for family members who are currently supporting a person with dementia, to take part in an online therapy programme. This new therapy helps people to learn how to live with distressing thoughts and feelings, and how to cope with difficulties that are out of their control such as caring responsibilities, while still trying to do things that really matter to them. Participants should be over 18 years of age, be supporting a family member with dementia, and would like to receive support for worries and/or distress.

To register your interest or take part, please email research@berkshire.nhs.uk quoting ‘iACT4Carers’ study.

Sleep study

Sleep is important for learning new movements and skills, but sleep can often be worse following a stroke. We want to test for improvements in sleep with an online cognitive behavioural therapy insomnia programme called Sleepio, which will also explore whether improving sleep impacts on movement learning. The study is recruiting participants who have had a stroke which has affected the movement of their hand or arm, experience sleep problems and would like to access ways to improve their sleep.

To take part contact research@berkshire.nhs.uk quoting ‘Inspires 2’.

Eating Disorders study

This research aims to explore risk factors in individuals who have experienced eating disorders at any time in their lives. It will study the genetic and environmental links to eating disorders in order to improve treatments for current and future patients. It involves completing a questionnaire online and a saliva sample. You can take part if you are over 16 years old, live in England and are currently experiencing or have experienced an eating disorder in the past.

To register your interest or take part, please email research@berkshire.nhs.uk quoting ‘EDGI’ study

Psychosis study

This study aims to find out more about the experiences of people from black and minority ethnic groups with a diagnosis of psychosis leading up to their recovery. This study is recruiting participants aged 18-65 years old of Black African, Afro- Caribbean and Asian ethnicity with a diagnosis of psychosis who have had no active psychotic symptoms, or any inpatient stay/crisis team contact in the last 6 months.

To register your interest or take part, please email research@berkshire.nhs.uk quoting ‘Experiences of people from black and minority ethnic groups’ study

These projects are just a few of the research studies that we are currently working on. We are also researching topics such as bipolar in children, depression, persecutory delusions and many more.

Find out more

Contact our research team to find out more about these studies, or see our full list of research projects (opens in new window)