Lecturer awarded research grant to lead pioneering project on housing adaptation
A senior lecturer at York St John
University has been awarded funding to lead a project which will
systematically review and map research relating to housing
adaptation for disabled people.
Maria Parks, a senior lecturer in occupational
therapy, will manage the three year project called ‘genHOME’ based
in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences at York St John
University. She has been awarded a research grant from the College
of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section – Housing (COTSS),
supported by the UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation
(UKOTRF) and Pressalit Care plc.
Maria will receive £30,000 funding over three
years to fund her PhD research. The project aims to review and map
existing research in order to develop a methodology to evaluate the
effectiveness of housing adaptations and solutions for disabled
people. These findings will then be used for future researchers and
clinicians to use in practice. Maria will be working with
occupational therapists working in the clinical area of housing and
other stakeholders to create an accessible information database,
and evaluate the usability of the project resources and assess
their impact in practice settings.
Maria, who is Head of the Centre for Enabling
Environments and Assistive Technology (CEEAT) at York St John,
commented:
“I am delighted to receive recognition from
the College of Occupational Therapists through this award and I am
really looking forward to collaborating with experts in the field.
Through my PhD this opportunity will allow me to develop a way to
measure and evaluate the effectiveness of their housing
interventions, something that the profession of occupational
therapists has been asking for.”
She added:
“Ultimately, if occupational therapists are
better at what they do through evidence based practice, service
users will enjoy better outcomes of their services.”
Prior to her academic position at York St
John, Maria worked as a senior practitioner in housing adaptation
services. She currently leads on the UK’s first specialist housing
pathway MSc in Health and Social Care at York St John University.
Through CEEAT, Maria has established York St John’s first Knowledge
Transfer Partnership (KTP) with City of York Council, which is
developing an evidence based Re-ablement service within adult
social services.
For more information about the genHOME project
and to express an interest in contributing to the project, please
email genhome@yorksj.ac.uk
For further information please
contact Amy Hall, PR & Communications Officer on
T: 01904 876466 or E: a.hall@yorksj.ac.uk
