P&O services enable individual and state benefits, by improving a person’s independence, reducing care responsibilities and enabling return to work or education, delivering 9:1 return-on-investment (ATscale). However, collaborative innovation is required to maximise effective funding use and deliver sustainable rehabilitation, especially for vulnerable people in LRS.
The Appropriate Technologies concept is often interpreted as functional robustness and environmental, material sustainability; cultural appropriateness and sustainable implementation are prioritised less. Social and cultural factors present very different challenges between nations and communities, so cultural competence and a detailed understanding of context are crucial both to appropriate conduct of research and to accurately interpreting the collected data.
We will describe example studies conducted in Cambodia with the Exceed Research Network, which demonstrate the importance of contextual awareness to three very different research methodologies. We will reflect on challenges in:
• Qualitative research to understand P&O service user needs and experiences:
1. assessing users’ needs to co-develop research aims
2. utilising a co-researcher ethos
• P&O patients’ mental health: research and intervention:
1. Addressing broader psychosocial health needs of P&O users
2. Tackling the qualified mental health professionals shortage by training P&O clinicians to perform mental health screening and referral, and facilitate peer support groups
3. Translating, adapting and validating self-report instruments
and
• Learning from routinely-collected P&O service provision data:
1. responsibly accessing data and extracting insights from clinic management systems
2. developing research questions that provide value to service providers and how ERN enabled interdisciplinary collaboration to address them
Statement of the objective / learning objectives
This session will provide examples of challenges of conducting meaningful research in a low-resourced setting, and insights into good practice and practical approaches to identify and navigate around them.
