Making a difference

PANDA-S II update, July 2026

PANDA-S II (The Prognostic and Diagnostic Assessment of Shoulder Pain Research Studies) was run in this Trust in 2024. We were a control site. Nationally, the study has now successfully completed recruitment and follow-up. Analysis has started. We hope to share early results this autumn.

 

MELD: Co-production within community-based services for children with intellectual disabilities and behaviours that challenge in England (January 2026) 

Creating good community services for these children is important. These children have intellectual disabilities and behaviours that challenge. Services should be designed with help from children and their families or carers. We do not know how well services are doing this.

This study looked at what services say they do to involve families. It also checked if these activities match what co‑production* really means. Please email us for further information.

*Co-production mean: children, families, carers, and professionals all help design and improve the service. Everyone shares ideas, makes decisions together, and has an active role in creating what the service looks like.

MindArise (November 2025)

This study looked at how staff in England use mindfulness. It asked how they feel about mindfulness. It also asked what benefits they get from it. Find out more about the study outcomes via this article.

 

Balancing preferences and constraints around nurses shift scheduling across the organisation: a qualitative study (January 2025)

The study wanted to understand how nurses make choices about their work shifts. It looked at what nurses, nurse managers, and directors prefer. It also looked at what limits their choices. The study explored how these things affect decisions about shift patterns. Our Trust supported this study during the Autumn of 2024.

You can read about the study outcomes here. Or email us for further information.

Building a supportive culture to retain doctors-in-training (December 2024)

Our Trust supported this study during the Autumn of 2024. Please find the study outcomes here. Or email us for further information.

 

Can compassionate leadership of senior hospital leaders help retain trainee doctors? (July 2024)

We ran this study in January and February 2024.The study gave doctors and NHS Trusts clear, evidence-based advice.
It shared ideas to help improve doctors’ working experiences.
It also gave recommendations to help stop doctors-in-training in from leaving this profession.

You can read the outcomes of the study here. 

 

Parent Carer Wellbeing Study (July 2024)

This study was open in our Trust in 2023. This summaryor the full article share the study results.

This is the first research study of its kind and the findings are worrying. They also highlight an there's an urgent need for action in policy and practice to support at-risk parent carers. 

If you have been personally effected by this please don't hesitate to get in touch for further support.

 

MELODIC: Music therapy for people with dementia (April 2024)

This study was open in our Trust in November 2023 — early January 2024. The study wanted to design a new music therapy for NHS dementia wards. The team worked with staff, families, and people who know what dementia is like. 11 people were recruited from this Trust so a huge thank you to all involved on Meadow Ward staff at New Haven, Bromsgrove, and Cantaloupe ward staff in Hereford.

Catch-up on a systematic review here.

 

Hearing Nasty Voices (February 2024)

We were pleased to be one of the first NHS Trust’s to open this study in February 2020. It was paused during COVID-19, but re-opened and ran until December 2021. We recruited 3 people. 

We shared the full report in 2023.

Read the study outcomes via the participant feedback and final report.

 

YourTube – Home blended diets for children who are gastrostomy fed (February 2024) 

More children with complex needs need to be tube fed. The usual choice is to use a formula. But a blended diet is another option. This involves blending food into a puree, and feeding your child this through a feeding tube. This study was looking at how do decide which option was best.

This poster offers a great summary of the study and results. The full results can be read here. Another version is available here. Please email us if you can't access these results.

 

‘Building a supportive culture to retain doctors-in-training’  (January 2024)

This study was run here in July 2023. The aim was to improve trainee doctors' working lives and stop them from leaving their jobs.

More information can be found here. Please email us and we can send on the full results.

RADAR (October 2023)

A study that staff from Herefordshire were involved in in 2019 has been published in the Lancet. 

The study looked at the benefits and harms of slowly reducing antipsychotic medication. It compared this with staying on the same treatment.

It found that slowly reducing the medicine over several months did not improve social functioning. It also found that people were more likely to relapse if they reduced their medicine than if they stayed on their usual treatment.

Psychological Impact of Covid-19 (phase 3), July 2022

We recruited just under 100 people to this online questionnaire study in 2021. This included staff too. Outcomes can be found here in the World journal of psychiatry 

SYMBAD trial results (October 2021)

SYMBAD: 'Study of mirtazapine for agitated behaviours in dementia (SYMBAD).'

Background: Agitation is common in people with dementia. It makes life harder for them and for carers. The first treatment is usually non‑drug care. But sometimes this does not work well enough.

There are not many safe and effective options instead of antipsychotics. This study looked at mirtazapine, an antidepressant used for agitation in dementia.

The main results can be found here in the Lancet. 

PrEP Impact Trial – A pragmatic health technology assessment and implementation

PrEP (HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis) is a medicine for HIV negative people. It can reduce the risk of catching HIV when taken as instructed. However this is currently not available through the NHS.

PrEP is made up of two drugs, Tenofovir and Emtricitabine. Both these drugs have been widely used for many years to treat HIV. The drug has been used by lots of HIV negative people across the world to reduce the risk of HIV.

To plan a PrEP programme in England, NHS England and Local Authorities carried out research to find out:

• How many people attending sexual health clinics need PrEP?
• How many of these start PrEP?
• How long do they need PrEP for?

In this Trust the study ran across the 3 Sexual Health Services; Arrowside, John Anthony Centre and Hereford. 64 patients were recruited. All participants in this study had access to PrEP. 

Read the outcomes here.