6 December 2006

New research institute launched

The University of Dundee has launched a new research Institute to look at the social and health care issues for disabled people.

IDRIS - the Interdisciplinary Disability Research Institute - will launch tomorrow (DEC 6th) at the Queen Mother Building. It brings together experts from various fields connected with conducting disability research, to pool ideas and develop ways of assisting disabled people and others who may acquire impairment.

The group will be based in Dundee with a core partner at the University of St Andrews. The group will be lead by Jennifer Harris, Chair of Social Science from the School of Education, Social Work and Community Education and the Deputy Director is Thilo Kroll, Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

The group will initially be working on four programmes:

• How technology can be used to improve life for those with a disability. There is plenty of technology aimed at helping the disabled, but often it is made without the input of disabled people. The group will bring technology developers and disabled people together to get the best possible use for technology.
• The role that exercise plays in preventing poor health. Thilo Kroll has been working on a project in the USA looking at the effect of exercise on health in 6,000 people with spinal injuries. This work will be useful to develop exercise programmes for disabled individuals.
• The group is also looking at service provisions for people who are homeless and disabled. Currently, little is known about how and where disabled homeless people access services, what their particular service needs are and how they manage the impact of disability and homelessness.

Finally, there will be a stream of work on Access to Health and Social Services, incorporating Professor Harris’ work with colleagues from Kings’ College London that underpins the National Service Framework for long term conditions.

Thilo Kroll says, "IDRIS was set up to look at disability in a different way. Traditionally, clinical researchers have studied impairment and function, social scientists looked at social exclusion or coping etc, We want to bring these disciplines together and work with disabled people to develop a research institute that looks at the person and the environment, at the body and the social context. We want IDRIS to be interdisciplinary, relevant to policy, and meaningful in that our research will make an impact on the lives of disabled people."

For media enquiries contact:

Anna Day
Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: a.c.day@dundee.ac.uk