Laura is a highly experienced qualitative researcher, having worked with these methods for 25 years.

With experience of carrying out research for different public sector organisations and charities, Laura has moved to an academic career, completing her PhD in 2022 and now works within the Surgical Interventions, Diagnostics and Devices (SIDD) division, at Leeds Institute for Clinical Trials Research (LICTR).

Laura specialises in understanding people’s access to various forms of support, services and programmes and has worked with Associate Profesor Dr Susanne Coleman for three years, supporting research to develop and test a preventative intervention for people with Long-term Neurological Conditions who live at home.

Presentation at The Society of Tissue Viability 2025 Conference

Pressure ulcer prevention for people with long-term neurological conditions: a participatory approach

JOINT PRESENTATION WITH DR SUSANNE COLEMAN

Objectives

The presentation is aimed at service users, healthcare professionals, policy makers, commissioners of care and third sector partners

Delegates will learn about:

• People with LTNCs often manage multiple needs and changing risks across complex health conditions and busy lives
• There is a gap in support, resources, and training for people with LTNCs and their carers, who manage PU risk at home
• Complex health and social care services, and gaps in provision, hamper people’s ability to escalate care when needed
• Healthcare Professionals and service users sometimes have different perceptions of PU risk

Abstract

Background: People with Long Term Neurological Conditions (LTNC) often self-manage their care and can fall between the gaps in health and social care services. There is currently a lack of pressure ulcer (PU) prevention support for this group, despite many people living with long-term risk. People with LTNC, their families, and Personal Assistants (PAs) are often uniquely placed to spot and respond to PU risk. Despite this, they are rarely included in conversations about risk, and they are underrepresented in research. Through this project, we are exploring what people want and need to help them prevent PUs at home in preparation for the development and testing of a new self-care intervention.

Methods: A participatory approach, with extensive input from those whose lives are the focus of the research, was used throughout the 4 interlinked work packages (WP).

Findings: Overall, 74 participants contributed across the 4 WPs, incorporating 31 Service Users (SU), 8 carers, 9 Personal Assistants (PAs) and 26 professional stakeholders. We identified 8 key themes related to PU prevention, incorporating, learning, safe routines, third sector and peer support, navigating complex systems, adapting and reacting to change, perceptions of risk, risk negotiation and supporting roles.

Conclusions: The findings indicate systemic and professional barriers which hamper people’s ability to self-care and seek help. By understanding these complexities we developed a systems map, identified resource requirements and illustrated a Theory of Change (ToC) pathway, to underpin our future  work.