Today, Sharon – one of the researchers on the pilot study – tells us a little about her recent work within the Connecting People team.

“Recently, the Systematic Reviews have been written up in draft format, and for the Learning Disabilities population group, we are now shortlisting potential journals we can publish in which is very exciting!

The first of the interviews commenced last month very successfully, four interviews were conducted throughout one day and we would like to thank the agency who recruited participants and aided with the organisation of these first interviews. It was great to complete the first of many interviews, and each participant provided a rich experience for me as an interviewer.

The interviews take around one hour to complete; some of the areas covered in the structured interview are personal contacts, housing and accommodation, education, health. Our target is to carry out these baseline interviews between now and early 2013; and after 12 months, carry out follow-up interviews with the same participants. This will enable us to evaluate the connecting people intervention. We hope to start receiving more and more referrals for participants for the study, and the new information leaflets should help with this.”