Carl Adams

My role

I am Head of People Participation and my role is to work across the Trust to promote, support and develop working alongside patients, carers, people, charities and community groups for research and improvement. The aim is to get all services to work with their patients and community to help improve the patient care.

My responsibilities

My responsibilities are to support the Trust's strategy on patient and community participation throughout the organisation by providing advice and support to teams to work with people who are associated and have experience of the services. We provide workshops, direct support and through our QI programme on involving patients/people to staff across the Trust and beyond. All my work is in conjunction with our patient representatives, Side-by-Side, who work with the Academy to promote and support people participation.

I work closely with my research and improvement colleagues, who support the delivery of research trials and quality improvement projects. Patient and community engagement is fundamental to future research and improvement work and is proven to enhance the quality and outcome of the projects we support.

My background

I am a qualified physiotherapist who has supported with people with neurology conditions. I had a special interest in supporting people to self-manage their long-term condition and how people interact and use health services. I have always had a passion for quality improvement and led projects which have had patients and carers at the heart of the changes.

Why I love my job

I love the variety of my job and working with patients, services and our community to improve the health and well-being of people. I gain enjoyment from experiencing the development, successes and learning from working with patients, people, staff and services.

More about me

I am keen cyclist who regularly rides the country lanes of Hampshire. I am also rugby fan and enjoy coaching my sons team on a winter's Sunday morning. I also have a wonderful family and love holidaying and spending time with them.

Current projects/research studies

I created the ‘Stroke Arm Position Tool’ and ‘The Stroke Arm Pillowcase’. These tools measure and support consistency in achieving an effective position for the stroke arm. Following a successful trial, the aim is to make the Stroke Arm Pillowcase available to others.

Published work

Adams C (2016) ‘The comfortable position’ – Positioning the stroke arm. Syn’apse. Autumn/ Winter