Meet the HomeHealth Team

Professor Kate Walters - Chief Investigator

Professor Walters is Professor of Primary Care & Epidemiology and the Director of the Centre for Ageing Population Studies at UCL. Her research interests include developing and testing new approaches to improving the healthcare for people with complex health needs, including Parkinson’s Disease, dementia and frailty.

Dr Rachael Frost - Trial Manager

Dr Rachael Frost is a Senior Research Fellow. Her research interests focus on promoting physical and mental health in later life.

Sarah Kalwarowsky - Deputy Trial Manager

Sarah has moved from being the Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire site to the deputy trial manager for the HomeHealth trial. She is a Canadian who has been living in the UK for 12 years. She has an MSc in Neuroscience and loves doing research that is designed to improve peoples' lives. In her free time, Sarah likes to watch stand-up comedy and go for long swims at her local pool. 

Dr Christina Avgerinou - Clinical Safety Lead

Dr Christina Avgerinou is a Senior Clinical Research Associate within the Centre for Ageing Population Studies, Department of Primary Care and Population Health, UCL, and is also a General Practitioner in West London. Her research interests include frailty and nutrition in later life.

Dr Yolanda Barrado-Martín - Research Fellow and Process Evaluation Lead

Yolanda is a Research Fellow. She is interested in developing interventions and services that help improve the quality of life of older people, people living with dementia, and their carers.

Jessica Catchpole - Process Evaluation Research Assistant (London)

Jessica is a Research Assistant, with an interest in improving the lives of people living with multiple long-term health conditions.

Sarah Gibson - Process Evaluation Research Assistant (Bradford)

Tasmin Rookes - PhD Student

Tasmin is interested in health psychology and people living with mutliple long-term health conditions. She has worked on a variety of behaviour change clinical trials, promoting the self-management of long-term conditions, including cancer survivorship, stroke, asthma, and COPD. Her PhD explores how having Mild Cognitive Impairment impacted participants ability to benefit from and engage with the HomeHealth intervention. 

Professor Claire Goodman - Hertfordshire Site Principal Investigator

Claire Goodman is Professor of Health Care Research at the Centre for Public health and Primary and Community Care (CRIPACC) at the University of Hertfordshire. She is the lead investigator for the Hertfordshire site of the HomeHealth Trial. She is a district nurse by background and leads a programme of work that focuses on older people living at home and in care homes.

Professor Andy Clegg - BTHFT Site Principal Investigator

Public Contributors

Jane Hopkins - PPI Lead

Since my retirement in 2007 following a forty-year career as a Psychiatric (Forensic) Social Worker, I have continued to be actively involved within Health and Social Care as a lay representative serving on a range of NHS committees, working parties and ‘Task and Finish’ groups, the London Clinical Senate and helping to develop Greenwich CCG’s Frailty pathway. I try to bring an ‘authenticity’ to my role both as an older, visually-impaired user (registered disabled in 1998) but also acting as a ‘voice’ to local grassroots user-groups across South-East London that are seldom heard or often overlooked. As a ‘baby boomer’ and service-user, I confess to a vested interest in ensuring that future services and the workforce delivering them will enable me to remain as independent and self-caring for as long as possible as I grow increasingly frail.

Rekha Elaswarapu

Rashmi Kumar

I am a carer for a family member with serious illness. I have experience of the physical and emotional challenges patients and families face every day, and how with little support their physical and psychological wellbeing can be significantly improved, helping them make positive contributions in their local communities.

I am from BAME background, and live in a diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged community. I have supported research and clinical trials on achieving inclusive and diverse PPI participation in research.

I work and engage with many voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, and am a Trustee of large Patients and Public Participation Group (PPGs) Network, actively working with local community groups, Primary Care Networks (PCNs), GP Federations and Integrated Care Boards.

Claire Jowett

Claire is a public contributor on the HomeHealth team. As a carer for her 98 year old grandmother who lives independently, she has a particular interest in frailty.  With multiple long term physical and mental health conditions herself, Claire is familiar with health and social care services and the pressures faced by professionals to deliver effective care to an an aging population.

As a public contributor, Claire is involved with a number of research projects where she is committed to ensuring that patient voice is represented. She hopes that her experience and insight of different health conditions and services, social context and care experience enable her to as act as a critical friend to research teams. Claire also brings this experience to her voluntary role in healthcare education, where she works with students in health and social care: she believes that having patient voice heard in education as well as research ensures that future professionals working in these areas will be able to embed patient centred care in their future practice, and use research to ensure it is evidence based.

Co-Investigators and Collaborators

Paul Chadwick - UCL

Claudia Cooper - QMUL

Vari Drennan - Kingston University

Ben Gardner - University of Surrey

Sheena Gawler (Later Life Training)

Rebecca Gould - UCL

Pip Logan - University of Nottingham

Jill Manthorpe - King's College London

Dawn Skelton - Glasgow Caledonian University

Kalpa Kharicha - King's College London

UCL PRIMENT Clinical Trials Unit team

Professor Lousie Marston - Senior Statistician

Shengning Pan - Statistician

Professor Rachael Hunter - Senior Health Economist

Anne Marie Downey – Clinical Trial Operations Manager

Sharon Forsyth - PRIMENT Clinical Trials Manager

Previous Team Members

UCL Core Team Members:

• Shelley Campbell - Research Assistant
• Verity Thomas - Research Assistant
• Amy Kerin - HomeHealth Trial Co-ordinator
• Christian Olsen - Communications Assistant

Bradford Core Team Members:

• Matthew Prescott - Site Trial Manager 
• Gillian Thornton - Research Assistant
• Heena Mistry - Research Assistant
• Wendy Andrusjak - Research Assistant

HomeHealth Workers:

• Farah Mahmood - HomeHealth Team Lead
• Alison Gabriel - Age UK Camden HomeHealth Worker
• Liz Millbank - Hertfordshire Independent Living Service (HILS) HomeHealth Worker
• Ruth Killeen - Hertfordshire Independent Living Service (HILS) HomeHealth Worker
• Marije Nicklin - Age UK Bradford and District HomeHealth Worker
• Saima Kosar - Age UK Bradford and District HomeHealth Worker
• Goodie Okechukwu - Age UK Bradford and District HomeHealth Worker