Attendees saddled up for the final ARCFEST of 2022 at Chester Racecourse, where the focus for ARC NWC member organisations, staff, public advisers and PhD students was current research and studies being conducted in the area of mental health and wellbeing.

Over 50 delegates’ attended in-person, with a further 58 using the virtual hybrid option, at the event held on Tuesday 13th December.

First out the starting stalls was the IMPaCT theme’s presentation, led by Dr Kathryn Berzins, discussing impact and progress from the ARC NWC’s Mental Health Roundtable.

The presentation also included results of a survey with ARC’s own researchers, member organisations and voluntary sectors across the North West to explore their current research priorities and suggestions for future development.
ARC NWC Doctoral Research Fellow, Alison McLoughlin, showcased IMPaCT’s relationship with community partners, whilst sharing experiences from public advisers on enhancements to training packages in social prescribing, for General Practitioners, which have been implemented across the north-west. The theme also showcased current internship opportunities and the benefits of completing an internship with ARC NWC.

Professor Ben Barr, Lead of the ARC NWC Improving Population Health Theme and Dr Katharine Abba, Research Associate in Public Health, Policy & Systems, updated the audience about the work on evaluating the health impact and cost-effectiveness of Liverpool’s Ways-to-Wellbeing initiative. The Liverpool Advice on Prescription in Primary Care project (Liverpool APP), run by South Liverpool Citizens Advice, was set up in 2014 to help alleviate poverty and hardship among people with long-term conditions and/or co-morbid mental health problems. The research findings will be used to demonstrate the value and scalability of the project.

ARC NWC member Liverpool Women’s Hospital joined in the action as a staff member outlined a recent Mental Health Rapid Conversion of Evidence Summaries (RaCES) output they had worked on, conducted under the supervision of ARC NWC’s cross-cutting theme, MIDAS.

Next up was Dr Pete Dixon, of the ARC NWC Care and Health Informatics (CHI) theme, highlighting the importance of household data linkage in research whilst spotlighting the challenge of communicating the many acronyms within this area of research. An accompanying video explaining the concept of household data linkage was well received by the audience.

CHI also communicated progress on their Groundswell research initiative, which is investigating whether living near green and or blue space, is associated with lower anxiety/depression.

Public Adviser and HaCAL Co-Lead, Dorcas Akeju OBE, spoke about the joint ARC VISTA programme which is supporting adults and children by integrating social care in response to intimate partner violence and abuse.

From the same theme, Dr Clarissa Giebel highlighted key upcoming dementia care projects which are bringing together worldwide expertise and facilitating global collaboration to improve care.

Professor Tony Marson facilitated the Person Centred Complex Care Theme Meeting. Attendees addressed issues around the co-ordination of continuity of care and the development of projects and grant applications whilst identifying what resources were available to access from within ARC NWC.

Claire Selby, Stakeholder Research and Engagement Network Manager for the CoREN, updated the audience within the EPHC theme meeting about the CoREN work and pioneering initiatives being worked on in Lancaster.

Further presentations included a focus on employment initiatives designed to get people into work, which provoked both positive and constructive discussion.
The event also saw the launch of a new series of podcasts focusing on health inequalities and inequities, applying an equity lens to and through research across the collaboration.

Group support manager, Lee Jones, from ARC NWC member organisation Random Light UK, said: “As a member organisation new to research I found the day helpful and it was fantastic to hear the stories of panel members and how sharing ideas within the collaboration at ARCFEST can help shape the future research of the programme.”

The entire collection of our December ARCFEST presentations can be found on our YouTube Channel.

ARCFFEST presentation breakdown
•Professor Mark Gabbay introducing attendees to ARCFEST
•Mental Health roundtable update and progress
•IMPACT Theme meeting
•MIDAS Theme Meeting December ARCFEST.
•Care and Health Informatics theme meeting
•Equitable Place Based Health and Care theme meeting
•HaCAL Theme Meeting