The Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing (SISA) is a multi-disciplinary research and undergraduate and postgraduate training centre concerned with the health and social care of older people and their health and well-being. It was established in 1993 in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sheffield. SISA is both a core group of specialists in gerontological research and training, who form a section of the School of Clinical Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine, and a cross-faculty network of academics in the University of Sheffield with active interests in gerontology. The wider network has an Executive drawn from the biological, engineering, social science, nursing and medical school departments, and a faculty membership of over 50 researchers. In addition to its research activities, the Institute plays a role in influencing policy on ageing and in training the next generation of researchers on ageing. The Institute has links to service and advocacy groups in South Yorkshire, where it has a direct impact on improving the quality of life of older people in the Region.

SISA CORE GROUP
Research
We are an inter-disciplinary group of 10 full-time staff and associated research assistants. The core group’s expertise extends from clinical medicine to ethnographic research; and includes particular interests in geriatric assessment, intermediate care, stroke rehabilitation, palliative care, dementia care, housing choice, the organisation and effectiveness of community health and personal social services, and the development and appraisal of homeless services. SISA researchers are presently conducting projects funded by the EU, European Science Foundation, MRC, ESRC, EPSRC, and the DoH. Current active research grants in the core group are in excess of £5 million, and during 2000/01 we authored over 50 refereed articles and authored or edited 8 books. Details of current grants and publications can be found on our web site.

During 2000/01, SISA saw major developments in its staffing and research programmes.

Highlights of 2000-01
National Director for Older Peoples Services
In November 2000, Professor Ian Philp began a three-year secondment to the Department of Health as National Director for Older People’s Services, first and foremost to finalise and implement the National Service Framework for Older People’s Services, published in March 2001. Professor Tony Warnes took over as Director of SISA.
Barnsley Chair
In the summer of 2000, Professor Stuart Parker joined from the University of Leicester as Professor of Health Care for Older People. He has been appointed to the inaugural Chair in Geriatric Medicine at Barnsley District General Hospital NHS Trust, where he joins Dr Salah Gariballa, Clinical Senior Lecturer, appointed the previous year. Together they are developing both the health district's older people’s services and a foundation research programme.
New lecturer
In May 2001, Christine Parker was appointed to a Lectureship in Gerontology. She is a medical statistician and psychologist, and has worked on multi-centre studies of dementia and of rehabilitation after stroke. She had been a Research Fellow on a joint EPSRC-funded project with the School of Architectural Studies that is studying associations between design features of nursing homes and the quality-of-life of the residents. She will continue with the analysis of this and follow-on studies, and be engaged with the EASY-Care and COPE research programmes.
Intermediate care research theme
A significant development has been the award to teams including SISA members of two of the three projects in the National Evaluation of Intermediate Care R&D Programme. Intermediate Care: A National Evaluation is a multi-centre project to be conducted by a consortium drawn from the Universities of Sheffield (Professor Stuart Parker), Leicester and Birmingham and led by Professor Gillian Parker, Director, Nuffield Community Care Studies Unit, University of Leicester. The second award is to Associate Professor John Young, based at St Luke’s Hospital, Bradford, for the project which he leads on a Multi-centre Evaluation of Community Hospital Care for Older People.

Research grants
Other highlights have been the good progress of the ESRC and EPSRC projects directed by Dr Kevin McKee, and the rapid expansion and early national media impacts of Dr Merryn Gott’s research on sexual health among older people, which is supported by Pfizer. Dr Salah Gariballa has raised grants with Dr Hilary Powers of the Centre for Human Nutrition from the PPP Health Care Trust to support a prospective study of nutritional supplements among older people. Dr Maureen Crane has been awarded a Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship to complete her longitudinal study of the resettlement of older homeless people and to develop a comparative three-nation project on the causes of homelessness.

An ESRC award has been granted to Tony Warnes and Maureen Crane for the British component. Tony Warnes has also been awarded a grant by the European Science Foundation to support a Scientific Network on access to health and social care services among older migrants and expatriates in Europe, while Dr Jane Seymour and Dr Merryn Gott led a successful bid under the joint ESRC/MRC Innovative Health Technologies Programme to explore the role of health technologies during the end-of-life care of older people.

Teaching
SISA contributes to teaching in all phases of the undergraduate MBChB curriculum. The broad aims are that at qualification students should: understand the principles of assessment of physical, mental and social functioning in elderly patients and have developed communication skills with older people; have a knowledge and understanding of the organisation of health services for older people; and have a knowledge of the epidemiology, causes, prevention and management of the common diseases of old age.

The delivery of this teaching is through a series of lectures in Phase 1, and teaching in communication skills and clinical examination in Phase 2. In Phase 3a (Medicine in the Community) students are tasked to: undertake a brief, yet comprehensive, assessment of the physical, mental and social functioning of a frail older person living at home, and discuss management with members of the primary health care team; take a history from a deaf older person using guidance for communication with someone who is deaf; and discuss with their GP tutors primary care approaches to the care of older people, including drug prescribing for multiple medical problems.
A lecture on the causes, consequences, prevention and management of falls in older people is followed by small group work and plenary discussion. A final session is devoted to discussing the characteristics of frail older people and how services are organised to respond to their needs.

In Level 5 of the course (Phase 3b of the revised curriculum), core teaching is provided in the organisation of health care services for elderly people, and the assessment of patients undergoing rehabilitation. The department also offers a B.Med.Sci. in Social Gerontology and has contributed to the Bsc Paramedical Studies through a two week module on ‘Health care for older people’.

Early in 2001, the cross-disciplinary planning group for new Masters gerontology courses received the good news that a new module, ‘Introduction to gerontology’, had been approved. The course will first be offered in the second semester of the 2002/03 session, starting February 2003, in the revised Masters course pathways of the School of Nursing and Midwifery. The course is also available as a University Research Training Programme module. The syllabus of the module ‘Elderly people and elderly patients’ has been revised with a stronger emphasis on research methods and priorities for delivery in the Spring semester of 2002.

The principal training development during the past year year was the launch in July 2001 of an intensive vocational course for health and social care managers from low income countries. Titled Ageing and Development, it is a joint initiative of SISA and Dr Peter Lloyd-Sherlock of the Overseas Development Group in the School for Development Studies at the University of East Anglia. The inaugural run attracted nine students from Brazil, Mozambique, Malaysia, Montserrat, South Africa, Trinidad and Zimbabwe and a Japanese national who works for the United Nations Population Fund. Many colleagues in the University helped with the teaching programme, which was unusually stimulating for the tutors and positively evaluated by the students.

CROSS FACULTY SISA

The SISA cross faculty activities include a series of public lectures and research stimulation activities. In addition there are a number of active gerontological research clusters, situated in departments across the University which are active in the clinical and social sciences.

Public Lectures
The SISA programme of multi-disciplinary public lectures, which began in our inaugural year, continues to provide a diverse programme of excellent speakers and to be well supported. It is organised by Dr Lorna Warren of the Department of Sociological Studies and a member of the SISA Cross-Faculty Executive. During 2000-01, there were lectures on ‘Dementia in context’, ‘Family, kinship and ageing’, ‘Did people in the past grow old?’, ‘Developing gerontological nursing’, and ‘Euthanasia and palliative care’, the annual joint lecture with the Trent Palliative Care Centre. The Marjorie Coote Annual Lecture was delivered by Baroness Sally Greengross, Director General of the UK International Longevity Centre, with the title ‘Facing the Future: What Does an Ageing Society Mean to Us All?’ Forthcoming lectures are detailed on the SISA website.

Research Development Workshop on ‘Assistive Technologies’
In June 2001 Professor Mark Hawley and Dr Jane Seymour of the SISA Cross-Faculty Executive helped organise a research stimulation workshop on ‘Assistive Technologies’ for older patients and their formal and informal carers. The overall objective was to bring engineering, social science and health service research expertise in the University together, and to identify ‘hot’ topics and those which Sheffield teams are exceptionally well placed or enthusiastic to research. An afternoon programme was designed with a ‘round table’ format, and the structured agenda with short presentations on existing or past work proved stimulating. It led immediately to new inputs into an outline bid led by Professor Peter Tregenza of the School of Architectural Studies to EPSRC to establish a new multi-disciplinary research consortium to research Sustainable Urban Environments. The outline bid has been successful and Judith Torrington is now engaged with potential partners in the consortium building process.

Gerontological Research Clusters
Brief details of the cross faculty research clusters are given here. Further information can be found in our annual report or on the relevant department web sites.

Palliative and end-of-life care
Department or section: Sheffield Palliative Care Studies Group (SPCSG), Academic Palliative Medicine Unit, and The Trent Palliative Care Centre http://www.sheffield-palliative.org.uk
Investigators: Professor David Clark; Professor Sam Ahmedzai; Professor Sheila Payne; Dr Jane Seymour
Supporting older people and their families
Department or Section: Community, Ageing, Rehabilitation, Education and Research (CARER), School of Nursing and Midwifery http://www.snm.shef.ac.uk/departments/carer/carer.htm
Investigators: Research leads: Professor Mike Nolan, Dr Sue Davies, supported by several staff (Louise Brereton, Jayne Brown, Dr Elizabeth Hanson, Janet Nolan, Dr Pat Schofield and Josie Tetley)

Osteoporosis and ageing
Department: Bone Metabolism group, Section of Medicine, Division of Clinical Sciences (North) http://www.shef.ac.uk/~med/index.html
Investigators: Professor Richard Eastell; Dr Aubrey Blumsohn (Senior Lecturer); Dr Nicola Peel (Honorary Senior Lecturer); Postdoctoral Research Assistants: Dr Lynne Ferrar, Dr Rosemary Hannon, Dr Yvette Henry, Dr Bridget Ingle, Dr Helen Lambert, Dr Kim Naylor, Dr Margaret Paggiosi, Dr Angela Rogers, Dr Christine Smith.

The Disability and Ageing Research Cluster
Department: Department of Sociological Studies
Investigators: Professor Tim Booth (co-ordinator), Professor Alan Walker, Dr Ruby Chau, Dr Margaret Lloyd and Dr Lorna Warren, with Professor Richard Jenkins and Dr David Phillips as associated members ; 2.7 fte research staff and 16.5 PGRS are attached to the cluster.

Extending quality of life
Department: Department of Sociological Studies
Investigators: Professor Alan Walker, Dr Catherine Hennessy, Kristiina Martimo

Rehabilitation and intermediate care
Department: Institute of General Practice and Primary Care, School of Health and Related Research
Investigators: Professor Pam Enderby, Liz Croot, Dr Alex John, Michelle Marshall, Dr Tony Ryan, Joanne Thompson.

Further information
A more detailed account of SISA's activities in 2000-01 can be found in our annual report, which is available on request from:
Mrs Kate Smith
Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing
University of Sheffield
Community Sciences Centre
Northern General Hospital
Sheffield
S5 7AU

The SISA web site is regularly updated and has contact details for all staff, together with detailed summaries of their work: http://www.shef.ac.uk/sisa/

From left to right back row: Professor Stuart Parker, Dr Kevin McKee, Cos Tingle, Dr Mike Jennings, Dr Merryn Gott, Dr Salah Gariballa, Professor Ian Philp, Professor Tony Warnes and Dr Raj Ullegaddi From left to right front row: Keung Mi Oh, Chris Parker, Sharon Hinchcliffe, Joy Marriott, Beth Fawcett, and Carrie Taylor.

Core Academic Staff
Professor Tony Warnes (Director)
Professor Stuart Parker (Clinical Director)
Professor Ian Philp (Professor of Health Care of Elderly People)
Professor Associate John Young (Bradford)
Dr Salah Gariballa (Clinical Senior Lecturer)
Dr Mike Jennings (Clinical Senior Lecturer)
Dr Kevin McKee (Lecturer)
Dr Merryn Gott (Lecturer)
Dr Maureen Crane (Leverhulme Research Fellow)
Dr R Ullegaddi (Clinical Research Fellow)