Research is important to make sure that our current and future patients as well as their families, receive the best and most up-to-date care and support. Our research focuses on understanding people’s symptoms and concerns and improving quality of life. We welcome our patients, families, and staff to contribute towards research ideas in areas which they feel that are important to them.
If you wish to express your interest in taking part in research studies, please email: research@ellenor.org
ellenor actively participates in national studies, as well as being involved in local research groups, such as the West Kent Hospice Collaborative and Kent and Medway Palliative Care Research Group.
Some of our research projects also include working closely with universities. Examples of the research participation carried out are as below:
Alcohol Study (The prevalence of alcohol and drug use disorders in cancer patients and their caregivers, and the effects on caregiver burden).
This study was led by Royal Surrey County Hospital between 2016 and 2019. It was designed to see if living with, or caring for someone with cancer, led to coping strategies with alcohol or drugs. This was to see if more support needed to be available.
Across all research sites, five hundred and seven people living with cancer as well as their caregivers completed questionnaires assessing symptom (e.g. pain), alcohol use, drug use and caregiver issues.
Results showed that issues with alcohol and drug were low for patients and caregivers and caregivers who were more stressed tended to have more issues.
OPEL H@H Study (Optimum Hospice at Home Services).
This study was led by University of Kent between 2017 and 2019.
PARAMOUNT Study (Pain Management in the Community for Children with Serious Conditions (Life-limiting or Life-threatening).
This study was led by University of Southampton and recruitment period was finished in December 2020.
The researchers spoke to parents, carers and healthcare professionals about their experiences of managing pain relief for a child with a condition or illness that might be considered life-threatening or life-limiting, when they were out of hospital. They would also like to find out what has helped or made it difficult for children and young people to manage their pain when they were at home.
The collected information was expected to be used to develop a guide, to support children, young people and their carers to manage the pain better, when they would prefer to be cared for at home.
LAPCEL is a network formed of Anglia Ruskin University, ellenor, Diversity House, University of Greenwich and Medway Diversity Forum.
LAPCEL aims to identify the palliative and end of life care needs of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups, as well as to build awareness of what palliative and end of life services are available for these communities in north Kent, Medway and Swale.
LAPCEL has organised several events with the local BAME groups to learn how best to work with them to facilitate their uptake of palliative care services, as well as to disseminate the main outcomes from the event to other health service providers.
