The REACHE Project

The Research Engagement And Collaborative Health Enquiry (REACHE) project is working to integrate people with learning disabilities into research projects, with the goal of promoting inclusion, improving engagement and ensuring health research is guided by personal experiences.

People with a learning disability have a higher mortality rate than the general public and experience inequality in healthcare and in research. REACHE (Research Engagement And Collaborative Health Enquiry) is a project aimed to promote awareness and increase patient and public involvement from what is an under represented group in research. The project was funded by the Faculty’s Participatory Research scheme.

Ensuring representation

The project, led by Lecturer in Nursing Helen Marshall and Dr Carolyn Lees, a Senior Lecturer in Nursing, started in February 2023 with an ethos of co-production throughout, demonstrating precisely what we aim to encourage – the inclusion of a person with a learning disability as part of the research team.

The team included eight people with lived experience who had a learning disability. Participants were from two Merseyside organisations -‘Moving On With Life and Learning’ (MOWLL) and ‘People First Merseyside’.  These organisations promote inclusion, empowerment and giving their members a voice.

Also involved were representatives from the School of Allied Health Professions and Nursing (Nursing, Orthoptics, Occupational therapy, Diagnostic radiography, Therapeutic radiotherapy and Physiotherapy). Two international summer interns from Canada and America also worked on the project, as well as a recent nursing graduate, who supported the ethical application process. 

What we did

The project was devised to challenge stereotypes and preconceptions about the capabilities, and talents of those with learning disabilities, and how they could bring a unique and valuable insight to research. Including people’s lived experiences is a key focus of the study. After a period of consultation within the group, it was agreed that content resources were needed to deliver the key messages and promote our project both internally and beyond. A video was commissioned to showcase the REACHE project, it's aims and goals, and the people who will drive it forward.

We worked closely with Liverpool Film Initiative, who were able to bring our vision to life and ensure all views were represented. All parties were involved every step of the way, working collaboratively throughout.

Reasonable adjustments were explored and provided to promote inclusion. Everyone in the team has reflected on their own practices, such as the words we use, and how future projects must always have patient and public involvement at the heart of it. Their contribution is essential.

Next steps

The team are committed to continuing their work on the integration of those with learning disabilities into research work. The team will work both internally and beyond the University of Liverpool to affect change in the way we work as a scientific community, and show the benefit of our project and the fantastic people that we work with.

Feedback suggests those who give their time as a person with lived experience do not always receive updates at the end of projects. For example, did their contribution help in a successful grant application, did the research take place and if so, what did it find. With this in mind, we hosted a celebration event for the REACHE team. We value the input of all members of the team and the relationships we’ve built and will maintain and want to come together as a team, to acknowledge the closure of this part of the project.

We are also joining with other UK researchers, who are conducting work around greater inclusion of this under represented group in research. We plan to write an article for inclusion in a peer reviewed journal and we will continue to do this in a co-produced way.

Looking towards our next project, our aim is to promote having a person with a learning disability as a member of the research team. We want to lead by example and this will be the next step of putting into practice the message we are delivering.

REACHE Project image pack

We have prepared a series of images including participants in our project which can be used via social channels, websites, or any other content platform.

These images are to be used to start a conversation regarding inclusion and hearing, seeing and including adults with a learning disability in research

Download the image pack here.