Research at TVCC

Thames Valley Children's Centre (TVCC) has a long history of research. We established a research program at TVCC in 1988. We believe that research and evaluation activities are an important part of providing quality services and interventions to our clients and their families.

TVCC's approach to research development is multi-faceted and needs-based, with an emphasis on program evaluation. For these evaluations, clinicians typically partner with researchers. Other types of research are also supported, including knowledge generation and sharing activities. The model is based on having staff with a high level of research expertise available to work with leadership and staff from across the Centre.

The Research Program provides services (direct and consultation services, education, and resources) to TVCC staff members, and collaborates with internal and external partners on research projects. The ultimate aim of the Research Program is to improve community participation and quality of life for children with disabilities and their families.

Good research gives us information that helps us to do things better. Thoughtful, well designed and relevant clinical research provides answers to our questions, clarifies issues, gives direction and helps us to be accountable to clients, families, the community and funders.

Research helps us to ...

• find answers to questions and issues that are important to our clients and families
• improve our understanding of childhood disabilities and the issues they raise
• improve the services we provide
• decide if a treatment/intervention works

Key Theme Areas

The Research Program focuses on two strategic research directions that are relevant and meaningful to clients, their families and service providers:

1. Evaluating programs, interventions and aspects of service delivery.
2. Investigation of psychosocial aspects of disabilities. Examining the social and emotional (psychosocial) needs and outcomes of clients and their families. For example, studying and finding better ways of delivering care may lessen the impact (i.e., stress) of the child's disability on the child, family and its individual members. Psychosocial research may also help children and families to develop the skills needed to adjust and function with minimum distress.

Key Goals of the Research Program

• Create a strong research climate that promotes TVCC staff members' awareness, enthusiasm, and participation in research and evaluation, and that fosters ongoing critical appraisal of therapeutic effectiveness as well as increased understanding of the psychosocial aspects of physical disabilities and interventions.
• Provide resources and ongoing, individualized support to therapists conducting research.
• Share/disseminate research and evaluation findings internally and externally to other children's rehabilitation centres and at professional conferences.

Research Program Team

• The Director of Quality Management provides overall direction to the Research Program and is responsible for the administrative aspects of the Program.
• The Centre Researchers consult with, educate and assist staff about doing research or research-informed clinical practice, coordinate and implement research studies, and collaborate on research projects with internal and external partners.
• The Research Officer coordinates administrative aspects of the Research Program, organizes the communication of research information, develops resources and information systems, documents and tracks all research activities, and acts as a resource to researchers.

Functions of the Research Program

The Research Program Team members assist staff with research-related education, through:

• direct involvement,
• consultation,
• education, and
• provision of resources.

Direct and Consultation Services

Services include providing advice on and carrying out all aspects of the research/evaluation process (e.g., formulating a research question, designing a questionnaire, analysing data, selecting an agency to apply to for funding, selecting a journal for submission of a manuscript).

Research Program team members also provide feedback on research materials written by TVCC staff members such as questionnaires, completed grant application forms, presentation materials and articles for publication.

Education

Information sessions are arranged in which staff members share the results of TVCC research projects and discuss recently published research findings. These sessions encourage awareness, critical evaluation and utilization of findings from the research literature. They also provide a forum for staff to maximize the impact of findings on clinical practice by sharing findings with staff members from other TVCC programs.

Resources

Research Program team members provide general information and resources on how to approach all aspects of the research/evaluation process (e.g., how to formulate a research question, critically appraise the literature, evaluate measures, write a research proposal and apply for grants).

Project Approval

The Research Program ensures all internal and external research projects that involve TVCC clients, and their families are first approved by TVCC's Research Advisory Committee (and a university ethics review committee).

Guidelines also exist to ensure client confidentiality in research studies, and to ensure that TVCC staff members make the initial contact with parents and clients when their participation is sought in a research study. (See: Project Approval section of the website for more details).

Maintaining the highest standards for integrity in research are a requirement to us. To learn more, review our Ensuring Research Integrity Policy (pdf).

Research Content