The Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change team is excited to host its third networking event, Behaviour Change: Network and Learn. Dr Kara Gray-Burrows and Dr Amrit (Bhatti) Chauhan from the University of Leeds, UK have kindly offered to present a talk on how they have used behaviour change theory to develop and evaluate interventions.

Following the presentation, there will be an opportunity to network with like-minded behaviour change colleagues over refreshments and canapes.

We warmly invite researchers, practitioners, strategists, policymakers, and advocates to join us for an afternoon of engaging and thought-provoking discussion on behaviour change.

We hope you can join us.

Using behaviour change theory to develop and evaluate interventions

Dr Kara Gray-Burrows is a Lecturer in Behavioural Sciences & Complex Intervention Methodology in the School of Dentistry at the University of Leeds, UK. She is a Chartered psychologist working in both research and teaching. The key focus of her research is in improving population health, particularly the health of children and young people. Her main research interests are in behaviour change, the development and evaluation of complex interventions, with further interests in implementation science, systems approaches/complexity science, and patient and public involvement and engagement in research. Kara works with a range of stakeholders, including health professionals, early-years workers, charities, government bodies, and commercial companies to develop and evaluate preventive interventions to improve the oral health of young children. Outside of dentistry, she has also undertaken research evaluating adaptable implementation packages targeting 'high impact' clinical practice recommendations in general practice (ASPIRE), an intervention to reduce sedentary behaviour in stroke survivors (Get Set Go), children and young people’s use of health technology in the management of long term health conditions (TECH-Y) and using consensus methods co-developed recommendations for patient and public involvement and engagement in implementation research. Kara has a passion for involving patients and the public in research, including using creative methods to actively engage children in research with the aim of producing high-quality needs-led research that can inform policy and practice.

Dr Amrit (Bhatti) Chauhan is a Qualitative Researcher and Chartered Psychologist at the School of Dentistry, University of Leeds. She studied Psychology at the University of Huddersfield and completed her PhD in 2019 using online qualitative methods. Amrit is currently a Project Manager for a research project called toothPASTE, which aims to reduce the prevalence of tooth decay for autistic children by empowering families to establish optimal oral health habits for their children. Amrit co-leads an Applied Qualitative Health Research Module and is actively involved with Advance HE Aurora and Athena SWAN, promoting inclusivity in education. Amrit supports several projects within a multi-disciplinary team which develops and evaluates complex oral health interventions. As well as supervision and teaching, Amrit provides behaviour change training to a wide range of early years professionals, including health visitors and dental team members.