BAIL'S TALES : May

We begin this edition with congratulations to Dr Deborah Snell’s research assistant Rachelle Martin. Rachelle recently received confirmation that she passed her Master of Health Sciences degree (endorsed in Rehabilitation) with Distinction. She will be presenting a paper that emerged from her Masters at the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI) Conference in Fremantle, May 2014. The title of the paper will be ‘Life goals and social identity in people with severe acquired brain injury: an interpretative phenomenological analysis’.
Our End User Consultation Committee led by Johnny Bourke is gaining traction. The group is an initiative to promote consultation between researchers and their populations of interest (a.k.a. end users). The EU committee is based on the philosophy that disabled people have a stake in the research process and so their active involvement in the development of research priorities can only improve research outcomes. The primary aim of the group is to engage with researchers throughout New Zealand and provide a consultation service to offer feedback on research proposals. More and more researchers are using the service and feedback to the committee on the value of the consultation process has been extremely positive (more details at http://www.burwood.org.nz/node/27).
WHAT’S COMING UP?
Thurs 19th June 12pm BAIL Research Peer Group Meeting
We have two speakers who will present around the theme of factors associated with ageing in New Zealand.
Dr Sally Keeling (Senior Lecturer, Dept of Medicine, University of Otago Christchurch) is attending the World Congress of the International Sociological Association, to be held in July 2014, in Yokohama Japan. She will be making two presentations at that meeting, within the Conference's Research Chapter on Ageing, both arising out of her work associated with Massey University's longitudinal studies on ageing in NZ. At this Burwood meeting, she will share a preview of one of these presentations, under the title of "Detecting ‘ripple effects’ of the Canterbury earthquakes in a national longitudinal study of ageing".
Dr Deborah Snell (Academic Director BAIL; Senior Research Fellow Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Medicine, University of Otago Christchurch) will present a brief overview of a collaborative study that seeks information about rehabilitation opportunities for NZers who live with osteoarthritis and proceed to joint replacement. Little is known about how much and which type of rehabilitation people can access leading up to and following a joint replacement or even if rehabilitation is beneficial. As the general population ages, the prevalence of conditions such as osteoarthritis is expected to double in the next 10 years, with a potential impact on healthcare resources and health outcomes. The cost-benefit analysis of interventions that can lead to better living and aging has never been more relevant.

NZRA clinician oriented workshop September
The NZ Rehabilitation Association is planning on presenting a clinician orientated workshop in Christchurch in September, hosted by BAIL. Watch this space for more details about this exciting opportunity.