2025 OPSYRIS Annual Meeting (Hybrid)
Friday 11th July 2025
The University of Manchester
The 2025 hybrid meeting will be available for both in-person and virtual attendance via Zoom. The programme will include oral and poster presentations, as well as invited talks and short workshops on a broad range of topics relating to psychological research into stroke.
The focus of the invited symposium this year will be on advancing qualitative methods, and there will be an invited Q&A panel on Patient, Carer and Public Involvement in Research including people with lived experience of stroke.
The event will be hosted by Audrey Bowen (Professor of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation) and Havva Sumeyye Eroglu (PhD Student).
The conference will take place in room G306 on the ground floor of the Jean McFarlane building, University of Manchester which can be found by following the link on this interactive map . The Jean McFarlane building is on Oxford Road with regular buses and a short walk from Oxford Road train station (0.7 miles) or the main station and Piccadilly (1.1 miles). Useful travel information to the University on Manchester can be found here . Car parking can be reserved for anyone with a blue badge who notifies us in advance havvasumeyye.eroglu@manchester.ac.uk. Nearby multi-storey car parks at both Booth Street West and Charles Street offer paid public parking but will be very busy due to graduations and public transport is recommended. Take care not to drive on Oxford Road as most of it is buses, taxis and bikes only during working hours and this is strictly enforced.
Registration for Manchester 2025 can be found on the following link:
>>>>>>> Registration <<<<<<<
We will accept on the door in person registration on the day at a cost of £65, made via bank transfer.
The date to submit an abstract to be considered as a symposium, oral or poster presentation at Manchester 2025 has now passed.
We are delighted to have keynote speaker Professor Sarah Peters delivering a talk on how to choose qualitative research methods and analysis best suited to a study. Mark Jayes and Daisy Gibson will be presenting talks on using qualitative research methods with people with communication impairments and the children of people who have had a stroke respectively. There will also be a talk on mixed method approaches to research by Lauren Lucas and a workshop on patient carer and public involvement in research, hosted by Dr Claire Mitchell.
Professor Sarah Peters
Talk Title: Capturing the story behind the numbers: The challenges and opportunities of choosing qualitative approaches to investigate stroke experiences
Sarah Peters is professor of health psychology. She leads Manchester Centre for Health Psychology at the University of Manchester and is co-director of the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Research Unit at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust. Her research investigates the features and consequences of effective (and non-effective) communication in healthcare settings, with the goal of developing interventions and training to improve patient care. She has explored this across a range of health problems, including stroke. Her research has attracted over £25million in external grant income and she has published more than 200 papers and chapters. She is a qualitative researcher, and has led on qualitative research methods within the NIHR Research Support Service. In her talk she will explore how different qualitative approaches have been taken to investigate the complex problems involved in stroke research. She will discuss how to choose the right tool for your research question, and the value these methodological approaches have in helping us to understand and improve the lived experience of stroke survivors, their families and healthcare professionals.
Mark Jayes
Talk Title: Supporting people with communication and cognitive disabilities to participate in qualitative research
Mark Jayes is a Speech and Language Therapist and Research Fellow in Communication Disability at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. His applied qualitative and mixed methods research explores how people with communication disabilities access information, participate in decision-making, and can be involved and participate meaningfully in research. Mark’s research uses authentic co-production and public involvement to ensure it is inclusive and equitable, and its outputs are impactful to community partners. His research has translated to the field of practice in supported decision-making, mental capacity assessment and informed consent, through the publication of: book chapters in textbooks; actionable practice tools including the Mental Capacity Assessment Support Toolkit (MCAST) and the Consent Support Tool, which can be used by researchers to ensure the informed consent process is more accessible to, and inclusive of, participants with communication needs.
Daisy Gibson
Talk Title: Navigating parental stroke: A qualitative exploration of children of stroke survivors’ experiences.
Daisy is a final year Trainee Clinical Psychologist at the University of Manchester. She has experience working in a range of inpatient, community and specialist mental health services for patients across the lifespan. Daisy’s talk will cover the results of DClinPsy research project which was focused on understanding the lived experiences of children following a parent or caregiver suffering a stroke.
Lauren Lucas
Talk title: Mixed or multi methods in research – what is the difference?
Lauren is a Physiotherapist at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust and a PhD researcher at the University of Manchester. Her physiotherapy background is in Community Stroke and Neurological Rehabilitation, and she has recently returned to clinical practice after submitting her PhD in December 2024. Laurens PhD used mixed methods and qualitative research to understand how the working relationships between clinicians and stroke survivors relates to self-management in the community setting. Her talk will discuss the difference between mixed and multi methods research using a worked example from her PhD.
Workshop – Patient Carer and Public Involvement in research
To highlight the expertise offered by people with lived experience of stroke we propose a 45 minute, in person, Q&A session on Patient, Carer and Public Involvement in research. This will begin with a 3 minute video to illustrate how PPI contributed to the COS Speech project https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/cos-speech/.
A panel of Ann Bamford, Billy Ellison & Stephen Taylor (pictured above) will answer pre-submitted questions on their involvement in studies across the research pipeline. The pipeline is defined as stretching from choosing which studies to prioritise and fund, through the stages of designing a study and monitoring its progress, and ends with sharing the study findings, getting that learning into practice and choosing the next project.
Dr Claire Mitchell (pictured above) will facilitate the Q&A. Claire is a Stroke Association Research Fellow and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy at the University of Manchester.
Suggested Questions include:
- Can you explain involvement in research, and how it works?
- What experience have you had of involvement in research?
- What benefits would you say come from involvement for: a) the research team and b) the person with lived experience?
- What are some of the challenges of involvement in research for a) the research team and b) the person with lived experience.
- Do you have any examples where PPI has made the research better?
- Can you offer any tips for making involvement accessible and meaningful?
- At which stages of the ‘research pipeline’ do you think involvement should happen?
- Would you recommend other people with stroke get involved?
We’re inviting additional questions up to a deadline of 4 weeks before the 11th July meeting, so the panel members with lived experience have time to prepare. If you would like to submit further questions) for consideration please email them to Havva Sumeyye Eroglu (havvasumeyye.eroglu@manchester.ac.uk).
PROGRAMME
| 9.00 – 9.25 | Registration, coffee, poster viewing |
| 9.25 – 9.30 | Welcome from OPSYRIS chair and local host, Prof Audrey Bowen |
| 9.30-10.45 | Invited symposium: Advancing Qualitative Designs |
| 9.30 Keynote Address
Sarah Peters: Capturing the story behind the numbers: The challenges and opportunities of choosing qualitative approaches to investigate stroke experiences |
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| 10.00 Mark Jayes – Supporting people with communication and cognitive disabilities to participate in qualitative research | |
| 10.15 Daisy Gibson – Navigating parental stroke: A qualitative exploration of children of stroke survivors’ experiences | |
| 10.30 Lauren Lucas – *RISING STAR AWARD TALK* Mixed or multi methods in research – what is the difference? | |
| 10.45 – 11.10 | Coffee and posters |
| 11.15 – 12.30 | Open symposium 1: Experiences and perspectives on healthcare, support and interventions
1. Lucie Tvrda Stroke leaflets vs AI: Comparing the views of stroke professionals and stroke survivors 2. Andrea Kusec, Lindsey Thiel Experiences of UK health care from stroke survivors and carers from minoritised ethnicities 3. Alice Storeya, Nick Zarotti We are still here, we are survivors’: patients’ experiences of attending a multidisciplinary group-based support programme following subarachnoid haemorrhage 4. Emma Patchwood Implementing Inclusive Online Psychological Support after Stroke: Professional Stakeholder Views from a Qualitative Study |
| 12.35 – 1.25 | Lunch and Posters |
| 1.30 – 2.15 | Invited workshop on Patient Carer and Public Involvement in research
Ann Bamford, Billy Ellison & Stephen Taylor will answer pre-submitted questions on their involvement in studies across the research pipeline |
| 2.20 – 2.40 | Comfort break / OPSYRIS AGM |
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2.40 – 3.20 |
Open Symposium 2: Assessment and intervention for suicidality and psychological wellbeing
1. Kellsey McCann Suicidality Assessment in Aphasia: a Delphi Study (SAADS) 2. Camilla Olsson Management of suicidality in stroke patients with and without aphasia – a survey among Swedish healthcare professionals 3. Shahd Benafif The impact of dysarthria on psychosocial wellbeing and quality of life among stroke survivors |
| 3.20 – 3.45 | Tea and posters |
| 3.50 – 4.30 | Open symposium 3: Assessment and intervention for cognitive and other consequences of stroke
1. Amelie Harder Fidelity and Acceptability of Non-specific Factors in the ENRICH Feasibility Study 2. Yidian Gao Spatial Inattention Grasping Therapy (SIGHT) for rehabilitation of spatial neglect post-stroke: a randomised-controlled multicentre efficacy trial with embedded mechanistic study of determinants of therapy response 3. Sam Webb *RISING STAR AWARD TALK* Co-production and Development of the Multistage Cognitive Screen – Stroke (MCS-Stroke) |
| 4.30 – 4.45 | Closing remarks from OPSYRIS Chair
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POSTER PRESENTATIONS
*Online Poster Presentation