Kulsum Patel

Kulsum has been involved in studies exploring the use of motivational interviewing to help adjustment after stroke, and has published in this area. She is currently helping to co-ordinate the COMMITS study, which is exploring the effect of motivational interviewing on depressive symptoms after stroke. Kulsum is involved in additional research relating to the psychological impact of stroke, including implementation of psychological support, systematic reviews of challenging behaviour, and identifying psychological issues and concerns.

Kulsum has been involved in a range of research studies, including OTCH (Occupational Therapy in Care Homes), ADOPTS (Accelerating Delivery of Psychological Therapies after Stroke), and COMMITS (Confirming the Mechanism of Motivational Interviewing Therapy after Stroke). She also has experience of conducting systematic reviews into the psychological effects of stroke, and psychosocial risk factors for stroke. Kulsum conducts both quantitative and qualitative research. She also carries out Patient, Carer and Public Involvement activities associated with research projects. Kulsum has presented the research at a range of national conferences, including UK Stroke Forum, Society for Research in Rehabilitation, and OPSYRIS. As well as studies of psychological support and interventions, Kulsum has an interest in implementation research. ADOPTS explored the feasibility of collaboratively developing and implementing stroke-specific psychological support across a range of services, and was a shortlisted finalist for the North West Coast Research and Innovation Awards. Kulsum was the Secretary for the Organisation for Psychological Research into Stroke (OPSYRIS), a special interest group of the World Federation for Neurorehabilitation, from 2014-2017. Kulsum has supervised clinical academic interns on short-term research projects, and has taught on the Principles of Stroke Practice module. Currently, Kulsum sits on the Health Ethics Committee at UCLan. She is also a member of the Research Institute for Global Health and Wellbeing (LIFE), and is Co-Vice Chair of the Faculty Early Career Researchers Forum.