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The School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queens University Belfast have secured over £250,000 from the British Heart Foundation Healthcare Innovation Programme to carry out the implementation testing of the HEart faiLure carer support Programme (HELP) in the UK.

 The HEart faiLure carer support Programme (HELP) is the first co-designed, supportive intervention for carers of patients with heart failure (HF) in the United Kingdom. It is nurse-led and delivers psychoeducational support to groups of around twelve carers over six weeks. 

The programme consists of six online support group sessions, an educational booklet, and a supplementary educational website. HELP was tested in a small group of carers in Northern Ireland (). These carers found HELP extremely useful and reported three key benefits; being better prepared for their caregiving role; strong support from the group, and improved emotional wellbeing. QUB Professor Donna Fitzsimons and her team have now received funding from the British Heart Foundation to give HELP to a large group of carers across the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland, England, and Scotland). They will look at the impact of HELP on carers and patients, explore opinions of the programme, and identify the challenges of delivering HELP. These findings will help develop a plan for giving HELP to all carers of patients with HF across the United Kingdom.

Programme researcher, Dr Gareth Thompson also added: “HIRANI outlined this high-value cardiac funding opportunity at our QUB Cardiac Research Group’s Heart Health conference in 2023. This drew our attention to the Healthcare Innovation Programme by the British Heart Foundation. Follow-up discussions with HIRANI supported the development of our proposal and assisted with facilitating the submission of the successful application and £250,077 in funding.”

The QUB Cardiac Conference this year will take place on the 23^rd of September with further details on how to register being announced in summer 2025.