Health and Well-Being

Aim: The main aim of the 'Health and Well-being' research strand of the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport, led by Dr Brett Smith, is to have sustained academic, social, political, and economic impact by addressing the most important questions concerning disability, health and wellbeing.

For further information about Brett Smith's research please see his PHC staff profile and his SSEHS staff profile.

1. Dr Brett Smith has been awarded a grant by the Canadian Health Research Institute (CHRI) to carry out research on 'Advancing methods and frameworks for understanding gender, disability, and transition to adult life'. Dr Smith will be collaborating on this innovative research with David Abbott from Bristol University, UK, Doug Biggar from the University of Toronto, Canada and Barbara Gibson, Karen Yoshida and Sally Lindsay all from Toronto Rehabilitation in Canada.

2. Dr Brett Smith is honoured to be part of a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research team that has been awarded a grant by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada to carry out research on “Promoting physical activity in the spinal cord injury community: Development, mobilization, and assessment of an evidence-based approach. This research is led by Prof. K. Martin Ginis at McMaster University.

3. Dr Brett Smith has been awarded a grant by the UK Spinal Cord Injury Research Network (UKSCIRN) to carry out the first research of its kind on “The health and well-being of spinal cord injured patients who are isolated as a result of pressure sores”. He will be leading a team that consists of Paul Kennedy (Oxford University), Helen Smith (Stanmore Hospital), and Caroline Pearce (Goldsmith University)

Advancing methods and frameworks for understanding gender, disability, and transition to adult life

Dr Brett Smith has been awarded a grant by the Canadian Health Research Institute (CHRI) to carry out research on 'Advancing methods and frameworks for understanding gender, disability, and transition to adult life'.

Dr Smith will be collaborating with David Abbott from Bristol University, UK, Doug Biggar from the University of Toronto, Canada and Barbara Gibson, Karen Yoshida and Sally Lindsay all from Toronto Rehabilitation in Canada.

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework and methods for analysing the intersecting effects of disability, gender, and emerging adulthood on physical, social and psychological health of disabled young men.

Critical research examining the gendered nature of men’s health is a growing field. However there is a paucity of research identifying how key life transition points may impact on men’s health and well being and even less focused on disabled male children and youth. Children with complex chronic conditions that were previously limited to childhood such as muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis are living longer, and there is unprecedented interest in designing rehabilitation programs that assist with ‘transitioning’ to adulthood.

Little if any of this work, however, has analyzed the intersection of gender, disability and generational categories of ‘childhood’ and ‘adulthood’ in mediating young people’s physical, social and psychological health. Thus, not only is there a gap in understanding, but a lack of knowledge to inform programs that assist disabled youth. The purpose of this study therefore is to fill this by developing a conceptual framework and methods for analysing the intersecting effects of disability, gender, and emerging adulthood on physical, social and psychological health of disabled young men.

Disability in Sport, Physical Activity and Health

1. Understanding the well-being of spinal cord injured patients who are isolated as a result of pressure ulcers

2. Developing methods and frameworks for understanding gender, disability, and transition to adult life

3. Understanding narrative, embodiment and resilience in positive and/or negative life changes following spinal cord injury

4. The relationship between the role of sport in rehabilitation and high performance sporting cultures.

If you are interested in the Peter Harrison Centre undertaking research in these (or related areas) please contact Dr Brett Smith at the following email address: B.M.Smith@lboro.ac.uk.

Publications

Smith, B. (2010). Dialogism, monologism, and boundaries: Some possibilities for disability studies and interdisciplinary research. Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal. 6(3): 25-33.

Presentations in Descending Date Order

Mundle, R., Huth, J., & Smith, B. (2010). Evoking narratives: Hospital Chaplains’ experiences of illness, disability, and interpellation. Narrative Matters, 20-23rd May 2010, New Brunswick, Canada.

Smith, B. (2010). Disability, sport, and the narrative study of lives.  At the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) conference, 10-12th June 2010, Tucson, USA.

Smith, B. & Phoenix, C. (2010). Approaches to narrative analysis of qualitative data: Examples from disability and aging research. Pre-conference workshop. The Fifth Biennial Interdisciplinary Conference on Narrative Research, Perspectives and Approaches Across the Humanities and Social Sciences, 20-22th May 2010, New Brunswick, Canada.

Smith, B. (2010). Publishing: Practical Guidance, May 2010, at St Thomas University New Brunswick, Canada.

Smith, B. (2010). Stories of spinal rehabilitation, social relationships, & disability: An ethnographic creative non-fiction. Narrative Matters 2010 Conference. May 2010, New Brunswick, Canada.

Smith, B. (2010). Suffering a spinal cord injury through playing rugby: Stories of coping with a life changing event. British Psychological Society Annual Conference, 14-16th April 2010, Stratford-upon Avon, UK.

Smith, B. (2010). Spinal cord injury, well-being, and the possibilities of narrative medicine, 1st March  2010, National Rehabilitation Hospital, Dublin.

If you are interested in the Peter Harrison Centre undertaking research in these (or related areas) please contact Dr Brett Smith at the following email address: B.M.Smith@lboro.ac.uk.

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