Research
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NELFT Research & Development
The Research & Development (R&D) department at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) is committed to advancing healthcare through research, innovation, and collaboration. We want to make sure that our staff, service users and carers have every opportunity to take part in and benefit from research.
Research Studies Directory
Curious about studies you can get involved in right now? Search by health condition, or types of volunteers that we are looking for.
Get Involved
We want to provide opportunities for our service users, carers and staff to take part and be involved in research. Find out how we develop studies, how you can get involved or take part in a study, and what we can do for you.
Our R&D Team
We are proud to be a trusted, leading research department in mental health and dementia, with world-class researchers and academics, and strategic relationships with a number or academic and research partners.
NELFT Research News
The NIHR Associate Principal Investigator Scheme
The NIHR Associate Principal Investigator Scheme – Dr Éanna Ó hAnrachtaigh shares his experience and journey to be a future PI. 1st March 2025 Written by Dr Éanna Ó hAnrachtaigh What did the scheme involve, and what were the challenges? The scheme itself provided an outline of a range of tasks that clinicians should be c...
Sleep study for people with dementia shows ongoing benefit after two years
Sleep study for people with dementia shows ongoing benefit after two years Written by Professor Georgina Charlesworth 27th April 2026 TWO YEAR FOLLOW UP DATA FOR DREAM START STUDY SHOWS SLEEP BENEFITS FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA LIVING AT HOME ARE SUSTAINED The DREAM START study was a randomised controlled trial of a multi-component intervention to address ...
Red4Research: NELFT turns red to celebrate research
Red4Research: NELFT turns red to celebrate research On Friday 19 June 2026, colleagues across NELFT came together to support #Red4Research, a national campaign celebrating the vital role research plays in improving healthcare. Staff across the organisation proudly wore red to show their support, including the Research & Development (R&D) team. The ...
HARP Aphasia Study at the Clinical Aphasiology Conference
At the end of May, Anna Caute and Luiza Deaconescu travelled to Pittsburgh for the Clinical Aphasiology Conference. This is one of the main Speech and Language Therapy conferences in the US focusing on aphasia, a communication disability caused by damage to the brain, usually following a stroke. Anna and Luiza presented key findings from the HARP Aphasia St...
From lived experience to lasting impact: Keith Oliver is helping shape the future of compassionate post-diagnostic support
From lived experience to lasting impact: Keith Oliver is helping shape the future of compassionate post-diagnostic support Written by Melissa Melville with Keith Oliver 9 July 2026 Keith Oliver's recent feature in The Telegraph offers a powerful reminder that a dementia diagnosis does not define a person's future. Fifteen years after being diagnosed ...
iACT4CARERS study shows benefits for carers of people with dementia
The iACT4CARERS study was a randomised controlled trial of an online programme tailored for family carers of people with dementia. The programme is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and was designed to help carers live well while managing difficult experiences and circumstances that may be outside their control, including the demands of their ...
ODDESSI study results launched
After 10 years of research, the ODDESSI trial, the world's largest study of Open Dialogue and the largest evaluation of this approach to mental healthcare has been published in The Lancet. To share the findings, Rethink Mental Illness hosted a hybrid event on Relational Care which was attended by leaders in mental health and colleagues from NELFT. &nbs...
My Associate Principal Investigator Journey by Dr Aarzoo Suman
Completing the NIHR Associate Principal Investigator (PI) Scheme through the CareCoach Study has been a rewarding and valuable part of my research journey. The CareCoach Study, which explores the clinical and cost-effectiveness of an online support package for family carers of people living with dementia, provided me with the opportunity to develop research ...
World Physiotherapists Day — Children’s Community Physiotherapy Team Contributing to National Cerebral Palsy Research
The Waltham Forest Children’s Community Physiotherapy Team is proud to be among the 32 participating sites across England and Wales contributing to two national research studies, SPELL and ROBUST, led by Professors Tim Theologis and Sally Hopewell at the University of Oxford and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Abo...
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