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Lost in Translation - communicating with non-academics

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Date published: 
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
News source: 
CARDI - Paul McGill
Region: 
Northern Ireland
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Carrying out ageing research, implementing policies for an ageing population and working with older people requires effective communication. This can involve a diverse range of audiences including funders, older people, community and voluntary organisations, policy makers and the media.

Last week (Thursday 23 June 2011) CARDI and KT-Equal hosted a workshop entitled ‘Lost in Translation’ which examined some of the challenges and opportunities for researchers and older people. Apart from talks by experts in the field, the day-long event included practical exercises led by Professor Trevor Cox from Salford University and Toby Wardman from KT-Equal, like writing tweets, blogs and press releases.Mr James McEldowney, Prof Gail Mountain, Dr Roger O'Sullivan and Prof Trevor Cox at Lost in Translation event

Paul Magill, CARDI Strategic Research Officer, reports:

Robin Webster, chief executive of Age Action Ireland and speaker at the event, noted that there is surprising resistance among some academics to involving and engaging older people in research.

“Older people are experts in ageing; they need to be listened to and they need to be challenged,” he said.
Mr Webster added. “If they are involved it become ‘you’ rather than ’they’. They bring richness and experience to issues such as elder abuse and fuel poverty. They can be lobbyists and publicists as well as taxpayers. There are a lot of reasons why we should involve them in research,” He explained that older people’s organisations are often contacted by people looking for research participants, as though they were in just waiting for them with nothing better to do!
Professor Gail Mountain, University of Sheffield, agreed with Mr Webster: “Maintain the end user, older people, at the core of proposal development and involvement in subsequent research.”
She also gave useful tips on ‘making the cut’ – reaching the final stage in funding applications and indicated the benefit of “interdisciplinary research which is able to address complex questions which span different disciplines”. 
For Prof Mountain research proposals which impressed were clearly written without excessive jargon and acronyms; they had clear aims and objectives, with credible science and well costed. “People have a clear idea of what they hope to achieve; they check out has it been done before and, if so, is it worth repeating; and they show that their idea can create impact,” Professor Mountain said.
It is important for researchers to ensure their ideas fit the scope of the call and that they understand the requirements. “People can be guilty of carrying their pet proposals with them. You have to wait till the time is right,” Professor Mountain said, giving the example of one project which took ten years to get funding.
Mr James McEldowney from the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland, believed research should improve capacity to tackle strategic cross-cutting issues, encourage innovation and promote evidence-based policy making. “Quality is non-negotiable….If you look at real issues affecting ordinary people, there is no one department that can address them so I strongly endorse multi-disciplinary research,” he said.
Mr McEldowney said that research was only one element taken into account in policy formulation but it was important nonetheless. “We have to be passionate about the link between policy and research…”
Professor Alan Newell, a pioneer in design and digital media from the University of Dundee, showed how he used professional script writers and actors to get older people involved in research on new technology.
This is done by asking older people to commenting on how user-friendly the technology is and the ethical issues involved. For example he gets professionals to write and perform scenarios, which the older audience can comment on or he stops the play and asks the older people how they would like it to continue.
An important aspect of design is to move beyond physical and emotional needs towards aesthetics and what people wanted. “The user is not a laboratory animal but part of the development process. The things you keep in your home are a reflection of yourself – this can come down to very ordinary things like being able to buy a handrail that doesn’t make your bedroom look like a hospital ward”.
Presentations available here:
 
 

 

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