An exciting opportunity has arisen for care home residents to participate in a norovirus vaccine trial. This is part of a worldwide project and is being tested across age ranges from 18 plus, and researchers would like to include care home residents given the vulnerability of this population. In order to participate, residents would need to be able to provide written informed consent and not have any chronic gastrointestinal disease such as IBS. The trial is open to those in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Participation lasts 24 months and involves receiving an injection of trial vaccine or placebo at an in person clinic visit, then 6 follow up visits, which can be phone call visits if preferred. Participants would be asked to keep an electronic diary, fill in questionnaires, and provide blood, stool and saliva samples.

If you are interested in participating or would like to find out more, please contact Roy Soiza on roy.soiza@nhs.scot.

Lynne Baillie from Heriot-Watt University is looking for individuals over 60 who are able to provide informed consent to take part in this project which aims to identify UTIs early through interactions with a robot and monitoring changes to peoples movement patterns. Participants would be required to attend Heriot-Watt University for the appointment(s) and would be given a voucher as a token of thanks.

If you are interested in participating or would like to find out more, please contact Lynne Baillie on l.baillie@hw.ac.uk.

Allison Scott from Glasgow Caledonian University is undertaking a study looking at the provision of foot care for people with advanced dementia in Scotland. You are eligible to take part in this if you:

• Have a family member, friend or care for someone with advanced stage dementia
• Are involved in decision making for this person

Participation involves completing an online survey which shouldn’t take any longer than 20 minutes. There is also an option to take part in an interview with the researcher following survey completion; this is on an ‘opt-in’ basis and not expected of everyone completing the survey.

If you are interested in taking part, please contact Allison Scott at Allison.Scott2@gcu.ac.uk, or go directly to the survey and enter the code KPDL9JHDX when prompted.

People living in care homes are especially prone to infections and are more likely to become seriously ill when become infected. Many such infections can be prevented by safe and effective vaccines. However, vaccines are usually only tested in younger and healthier people, and we can’t be sure that they are just as safe, or work just as well, for people in care homes.

There are many reasons why vaccines are harder to test in people in care homes. For example, some people might have conditions like dementia which might make it difficult for them to give permission for research studies, and it might take longer for frail older people to provide answer to questions. Another example is that pharmaceutical companies may be reluctant to test their vaccine in people with multiple medical conditions as any flare-ups of the condition could be confused with side effects.

However, with the right guidance, all these problems could be overcome. Professor Roy Soiza from the University of Aberdeen and Professor Susan Shenkin from the University Edinburgh will be working with a team of expert researchers in the care home setting, and researchers with experience of running vaccine trials in hospitals to come together with people who work in care homes to discuss what all the barriers are, and how to overcome them. They will produce an expert guidance document that can be used by researchers to conduct these trials. The team will also volunteer to undertake vaccine trials during the project and attempt to recruit people from care homes in order to test out and refine the guidance further. 

This study is not currently looking for any participants but we will keep the website up to date with any further developments. 

Lucia Halamova from the University of Aberdeen is looking to speak to staff, residents and family/friends of residents about decision making around moving into care homes. The researcher would look to speak with those interested, either in person or on the phone/online. This would last around 30-45 minutes. The aim of the project is to eventually create a document such as a conversation guide or decision aid to help start early conversations and pre-emptive decision making around moving into care homes and help improve experiences of this. Everyone who takes part will be given £10 cash/voucher as a token of thanks for their time.

If you’re interested to find out more, please contact Lucy Halamova at l.halamova.23@abdn.ac.uk.