(Not just for) problems forum
Olivia's talk
Hello everyone
Olivia enjoyed talking to you last night!
Olivia Fulton lovely time speaking to masters students about PPI and patient involvement in research!!! Something I never thought I would do but loved it!
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Many thanks from me too for all your great questions - made me think too about how we approach PPI and how you perceive it.
You will find a link to 2 of the flipagrams Olivia and the young people's group made on your resource list under Unit 4. These are being used help to recruit people to a research study we are just starting.
I noticed your concerns about Leo, whose daughter died from asthma, and what he'll get from PPI. He approaches it very differently from Olivia - he rarely looks at research proposals or lay information, but he brings his business expertise to give us advice about strategy, communications, use of social media and provides a strong voice on our management committee. As I mentioned in my lecture last week, his talk (which some of you looked at on Olivia's blog), led directly to an idea for a PhD studentship which is now funded, looking at the social/environmental contributors to asthma deaths. While he does get a bit frustrated at the length of time research takes, he's hugely in favour of the Asthma Centre's approach and hopes it might prevent others from experiencing what he did. Of course, it can't resolve his pain, but it's a positive experience for him to contribute to our efforts to reduce asthma deaths.
People like Olivia and Leo get involved for a mixture of personal and altruistic reasons - I am constantly amazed how so many human beings want to do something positive to make a difference to the world, even for little direct personal gain. So we try hard not to exploit their good nature!
Allison