Feasibility of delivering group psychological support to stroke survivors in community settings

Supporting people to come to terms with persisting disability and life after stroke is a high priority for stroke research. There is an urgent need for evidence-based, clinically and financially effective psychological interventions that can be feasibly delivered for community-based stroke survivors.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a third wave cognitive-behavioural therapy that encourages clients to adjust to – and accept – current experiences and ‘commit’ to behaviours that are congruent with their personal values, in order to promote psychological well-being. Living Well with Neurological Conditions (LWNC) is an ACT-based psychological support intervention for groups. It has been used in NHS settings and has good proof-of-principle for improving well-being in clinical populations experiencing psychological distress.
This project is funded by the Stroke Association to begin in March 2019 and will:

1) Develop the existing LWNC course for stroke survivors, as well as a workforce training programme for course facilitators;
2) Conduct a feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT), exploring acceptability and defining the design specifications for a phase 3 RCT that will robustly test LWNC effectiveness for treating psychological distress.

All stages will involve service user collaboration with stroke survivors and carers, as well as collaboration with the Stroke Association, Clinical Neuropsychologists and expert researchers. Outcomes will be the production a co-developed group psychological intervention and workforce training programme that has potential to enhance stroke survivors’ well-being.

We are interested in supervising an innovative, committed PhD student to be part of this exciting project. PhD projects will be embedded within the work and have a particular emphasis on understanding intervention fidelity and acceptability through process evaluation and qualitative methodologies, respectively.

The PhD student will be co-located with the experienced supervisory team to ensure a supportive environment that is responsive to training needs. The supervisory team will support training in research methodologies including systematic reviewing, interviewing, process evaluations and participatory approaches to qualitative and quantitative data collection. The supervisory team will also support training and developing of competencies with regards to both quantitative and qualitative data analysis.

Practical skills training will be available e.g. critically appraising papers; statistical analysis; writing papers; presentation skills. The successful PhD candidate will also gain invaluable experience in approaches to service user collaboration; an important component of this project.

Opportunities for development of dissemination skills will be available through presentation at local research and interest groups, and attendance at conferences.

Through the PhD there will be opportunities to actively participate in the thriving research culture at the University of Manchester.


Candidates are expected to hold a minimum upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject area (e.g. psychology; neuroscience; medicine). Candidates who hold or are due to attain a relevant Master’s degree (e.g. research methods, clinical and health psychology) will be preferred. We are interested in candidates who have an understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including process evaluations. Candidates with experience in stroke research or clinical practice (including voluntary work) are encouraged to apply.