Professor Angie Hart with practice - University of Brighton · 2018-12-03 · divide is through...
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53 52 It is a problem which has long interested Angie Hart, who has for many years straddled the academic, practitioner and service user world. Alongside her role as Professor of Child, Family and Community Health at the Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research, she works as a child and family therapist, until very recently managing a caseload of 26 children with complex mental health difficulties. Being the adoptive parent of three children with special needs adopted from the care system, also gives her valuable personal experience to draw on. One solution to bridging the practice-theory divide is through innovative partnerships with community groups, something which Professor Hart has been involved in for many years. She has a long history of studying inequalities in health, and her current main research area is child and family resilience – combining academic knowledge with practice experience and user involvement. Between 2004–2007 she co- innovated Resilient Therapy™. This is a new therapeutic methodology designed to help children, young people and their families find ways to keep positive when living amidst persistent disadvantage. Professor Hart’s research, initially published as Resilient Therapy: Working with Children and Families, is co-authored with psychiatrist Derek Blincow and family therapist Helen Thomas. Resilient Therapy™ combines practice wisdom with research knowledge to develop a handy toolkit for practitioners, parents and young people. The ideas are broken down into separate ‘compartments’ covering the basic material necessities of life, the need for children to belong, helping children cope with adversity, optimal learning and deep issues about the development of our personal self. Within these compartments issues explored include the need solutions to their problems.” She added that staff development has improved, the organisation has raised its profile and gained wider credibility. It is particularly indebted to Professor Hart and her colleagues for their advice and involvement in shaping funding bids and for providing writing workshops to encourage community members unused to writing for publication to express themselves. Professor Hart’s research on resilience fits into a broader programme of work in which she also has a key leadership role. As academic director of the Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) she has been a leading influence in bringing community groups, practitioners, academics, students and service latest project, Bouncing Back, which builds on the initial ideas of Resilient Therapy™. Bouncing Back puts Resilient Therapy™ into practice with a range of other people. It is a two-year project creating a community of practice of 24, including academics, parents, practitioners, artists and young people who are working together to formulate a strategic way of thinking about and building resilience across the five compartment areas – basics, belonging, learning, coping and core self. The project involves initial training, monthly meetings bringing all those involved together, additional support for parents, the devising of monitoring and evaluation systems, ongoing support for those implementing Resilient Therapy™, development of training materials and resources and spreading this therapy to other groups. Professor Hart said: “While there are many academic research studies on achieving resilience, very few apply to disadvantaged children. And very few tell us what to do or how to build resilience in the face of significant difficulties and obstacles.” Community members have praised its impact. One parent commented: “I’ve always been skint, but was exhausted and depressed too. Having the university involved has improved my self- esteem and given me some really useful ways to come at problems with my kids. I feel inspired to try again.” Kim Aumann, director of research and training at Amaze, said working with Professor Hart has “greatly shaped” the work it does. “We have been better able to help parents generate to provide £250,000 a year for a team of six, managed by David Wolff, Cupp’s director. Since its inception, Cupp has supported over 80 partnership projects and run a helpdesk service which has responded to over 800 enquiries. Through strong academic links, the helpdesk draws on the expertise of 30 senior members of staff across 12 disciplines. With external funding, there are now two programmes running alongside Cupp’s core work, including a project on community-university engagement, showing how institutional culture change can bring the best out of universities and lead to ever- increasing benefits for community groups and the people they support. As well as supporting Professor Hart’s Resilient Therapy™ work Cupp projects also include Access to Art, a highly innovative art course that involves University of Brighton art students as art advocates for artists with learning disabilities. This project has led to the artists with learning disabilities being funded by the Arts Council as a self-managed professional group with studios at the Phoenix Gallery in central Brighton. Evaluation has also evidenced the extraordinary learning that the university students get from the experience. Since July 2007, over 300 students have been involved in Cupp programmes. Many have committed to continue working and volunteering with community groups, as have Cupp staff. Students say that the programme has helped their learning. “As a student you live in an incubated world,” said one. “This has enabled me to become part of a wider community and to feel much more whole. It has made me get off a treadmill and think about what I am actually learning and what it means for my life.” Another project which comes under the Cupp umbrella is the South East Coastal Communities (SECC) Project. This project, which brings together nine higher education institutions, has secured £3m from HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) to work with community groups and practitioners on long term health and wellbeing issues around four main themes: older people, young people and families, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and disability. Brighton plays a pivotal role within the three-year programme under the aegis of Professor Hart. Bouncing Back is one of the projects funded under the SECC programme. The aim of SECC is to provide a long term framework for community university engagement thus enabling such useful work to continue in the long term. for children to understand boundaries, be able to self-soothe, but also lean on others when required. Resilient Therapy™ also emphasises the need for a child to have exposure to as many healthy relationships as possible and to be instilled with a sense of hope. The book shows how the methodology works in real-life situations, citing case studies of children and families living with multiple challenges including poverty, disability, mental illness and abuse. It also helps practitioners and welfare organisations develop greater resilience. Professor Hart and colleagues have made a film about their work, and following on from this first book, Professor Hart teamed up with voluntary sector worker Kim Aumann to write a very accessible version of the research, Helping children with complex needs bounce back: Resilient Therapy™ for parents and professionals. Kim works for Amaze, a one stop shop for parents of children with special needs. It offers advice, information and support through a telephone helpline, publications, education casework for parents needing help on education issues, advice on claiming benefits, transition planning support to help children make a smooth transition to adulthood, training, advocacy work and help with fundraising. Professor Hart has been working with Amaze since 2003 to develop their capacity through applying research knowledge. Amaze is involved with Professor Hart’s research team working on resilient measures and resilience in fostered children, as well as their users together. Cupp aims to transform relations between the university and hundreds of local community organisations and to develop real solutions to real problems using university resources. It is a win win situation with the community benefiting through closer engagement with research and researchers benefiting through closer links with the community. Over 100 academics have become involved in the programme. Initially, there was scepticism on all sides when the programme was set up, but this was overcome. The real test came, however, in August 2007 when external core funding ceased. By then, though, its impact and potential were clear and the university decided How can academics bridge the gap between theory and practice, particularly in hands-on areas such as care for the elderly or people with learning disabilities or support for parents looking after children with emotional and behavioural difficulties? Linking theory with practice Professor Angie Hart transforming research society
Transcript of Professor Angie Hart with practice - University of Brighton · 2018-12-03 · divide is through...
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It is a problem which has long interested Angie Hart, who has for many years straddled the academic, practitioner and service user world. Alongside her role as Professor of Child, Family and Community Health at the Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research, she works as a child and family therapist, until very recently managing a caseload of 26 children with complex mental health difficulties. Being the adoptive parent of three children with special needs adopted from the care system, also gives her valuable personal experience to draw on.
One solution to bridging the practice-theory divide is through innovative partnerships with community groups, something which Professor Hart has been involved in for many years. She has a long history of studying inequalities in health, and her current main research area is child and family resilience – combining academic knowledge with practice experience and user involvement. Between 2004–2007 she co-innovated Resilient Therapy™.
This is a new therapeutic methodology designed to help children, young people and their families find ways to keep positive when living amidst persistent disadvantage. Professor Hart’s research, initially published as Resilient Therapy: Working with Children and Families, is co-authored with psychiatrist Derek Blincow and family therapist Helen Thomas. Resilient Therapy™ combines practice wisdom with research knowledge to develop a handy toolkit for practitioners, parents and young people.
The ideas are broken down into separate ‘compartments’ covering the basic material necessities of life, the need for children to belong, helping children cope with adversity, optimal learning and deep issues about the development of our personal self. Within these compartments issues explored include the need
solutions to their problems.” She added that staff development has improved, the organisation has raised its profile and gained wider credibility. It is particularly indebted to Professor Hart and her colleagues for their advice and involvement in shaping funding bids and for providing writing workshops to encourage community members unused to writing for publication to express themselves.
Professor Hart’s research on resilience fits into a broader programme of work in which she also has a key leadership role. As academic director of the Community University Partnership Programme (Cupp) she has been a leading influence in bringing community groups, practitioners, academics, students and service
latest project, Bouncing Back, which builds on the initial ideas of Resilient Therapy™. Bouncing Back puts Resilient Therapy™ into practice with a range of other people. It is a two-year project creating a community of practice of 24, including academics, parents, practitioners, artists and young people who are working together to formulate a strategic way of thinking about and building resilience across the five compartment areas – basics, belonging, learning, coping and core self.
The project involves initial training, monthly meetings bringing all those involved together, additional support for parents, the devising of monitoring and evaluation systems, ongoing support for those implementing Resilient Therapy™, development of training materials and resources and spreading this therapy to other groups. Professor Hart said: “While there are many academic research studies on achieving resilience, very few apply to disadvantaged children. And very few tell us what to do or how to build resilience in the face of significant difficulties and obstacles.”
Community members have praised its impact. One parent commented: “I’ve always been skint, but was exhausted and depressed too. Having the university involved has improved my self-esteem and given me some really useful ways to come at problems with my kids. I feel inspired to try again.”
Kim Aumann, director of research and training at Amaze, said working with Professor Hart has “greatly shaped” the work it does. “We have been better able to help parents generate
to provide £250,000 a year for a team of six, managed by David Wolff, Cupp’s director.
Since its inception, Cupp has supported over 80 partnership projects and run a helpdesk service which has responded to over 800 enquiries. Through strong academic links, the helpdesk draws on the expertise of 30 senior members of staff across 12 disciplines. With external funding, there are now two programmes running alongside Cupp’s core work, including a project on community-university engagement, showing how institutional culture change can bring the best out of universities and lead to ever-increasing benefits for community groups and the people they support.
As well as supporting Professor Hart’s Resilient Therapy™ work Cupp projects also include Access to Art, a highly innovative art course that involves University of Brighton art students as art advocates for artists with learning disabilities. This project has led to the artists with learning disabilities being funded by the Arts Council as a self-managed professional group with studios at the Phoenix Gallery in central Brighton. Evaluation has also evidenced the extraordinary learning that the university students get from the experience.
Since July 2007, over 300 students have been involved in Cupp programmes. Many have committed to continue working and volunteering with community groups, as have Cupp staff. Students say that the programme has helped their learning. “As a student you live in an incubated world,” said one. “This has enabled me to become part of a wider community and to feel much more whole. It has made me get off a treadmill and think about what I am actually learning and what it means for my life.”
Another project which comes under the Cupp umbrella is the South East Coastal Communities (SECC) Project. This project, which brings together nine higher education institutions, has secured £3m from HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) to work with community groups and practitioners on long term health and wellbeing issues around four main themes: older people, young people and families, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and disability. Brighton plays a pivotal role within the three-year programme under the aegis of Professor Hart. Bouncing Back is one of the projects funded under the SECC programme. The aim of SECC is to provide a long term framework for community university engagement thus enabling such useful work to continue in the long term.
for children to understand boundaries, be able to self-soothe, but also lean on others when required. Resilient Therapy™ also emphasises the need for a child to have exposure to as many healthy relationships as possible and to be instilled with a sense of hope.
The book shows how the methodology works in real-life situations, citing case studies of children and families living with multiple challenges including poverty, disability, mental illness and abuse. It also helps practitioners and welfare organisations develop greater resilience. Professor Hart and colleagues have made a film about their work, and following on from this first book, Professor Hart teamed up with voluntary sector worker Kim Aumann to write a very accessible version of the research, Helping children with complex needs bounce back: Resilient Therapy™ for parents and professionals.
Kim works for Amaze, a one stop shop for parents of children with special needs. It offers advice, information and support through a telephone helpline, publications, education casework for parents needing help on education issues, advice on claiming benefits, transition planning support to help children make a smooth transition to adulthood, training, advocacy work and help with fundraising. Professor Hart has been working with Amaze since 2003 to develop their capacity through applying research knowledge.
Amaze is involved with Professor Hart’s research team working on resilient measures and resilience in fostered children, as well as their
users together. Cupp aims to transform relations between the university and hundreds of local community organisations and to develop real solutions to real problems using university resources. It is a win win situation with the community benefiting through closer engagement with research and researchers benefiting through closer links with the community. Over 100 academics have become involved in the programme.
Initially, there was scepticism on all sides when the programme was set up, but this was overcome. The real test came, however, in August 2007 when external core funding ceased. By then, though, its impact and potential were clear and the university decided
How can academics bridge the gap between theory and practice, particularly in hands-on areas such as care for the elderly or people with learning disabilities or support for parents looking after children with emotional and behavioural difficulties?
Linking theory with practice
Professor Angie Hart
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