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.
Curious about studies you can get involved in right now? Search by health condition, or types of volunteers that we are looking for.
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.
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.
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 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 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 ...
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 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 ...
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 ...
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...
We want to hear from you! Whether you are a service user, carer, researcher or NELFT staff, we would love to hear your questions and ideas.