The Healthier Aging Patient and Public Involvement (HAPPI) group, established in July 2014, was recently successful in gaining funding from the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network. The group has expanded and is working with researchers from the Community and Health Research Unit on several research projects.
The group has informed bids for funding, given a patient and public perspective on current research projects, reviewed documents to help make them more accessible to the general public and have been actively involved in recruitment of participants for studies. The award from the Academic health Science Network will help to further expand the team and enable the HAPPI group to collaborate with other PPI groups in the East Midlands.
Some of the members are pictured here with members of CaHRU taking part in a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service East Midlands PPI training course run by Raksha Pandya Wood who is the regional lead for PPI. The course looked at what PPI is, and why the public are involved in our research. We looked at how to incorporate meaningful public involvement in research and what some of the challenges are. The training has motivated the group to continue to develop involvement in research and to work together to improve health research, delivery and outcomes patients in Lincolnshire and the East Midlands.