A podiatry service manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran has been awarded a grant to tackle foot ulcers in deprived areas. 

Dr Jodi Binning is among the podiatry researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University who have been awarded £299,751 to tackle diabetes-related foot ulceration.

The project will focus on areas of multiple deprivation in Scotland using a new approach based on motivational interviewing.

Drs Ruth Barn, Gordon Hendry and Jodi Binning have secured a grant from the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office to carry out their research project.

The expert team hope that the new treatment will empower patients to adopt new lifestyle changes and ultimately reduce ulceration, amputation and death rates among people with diabetes.

Foot ulcers are wounds that appear below the ankle that can lead to serious complications including amputation and death.

They affect between 19 and 34 per cent of people with diabetes and are more common in areas of multiple deprivation.

The three-year pilot trial is a collaboration with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Tayside, Ayrshire and Arran, and Lanarkshire.

The researchers will be training podiatrists on how to deliver motivational interviewing, specifically for people with diabetes who are at greatest risk of developing complications.

Dr Binning carried out research as part of her PhD, which showed that motivational interviewing was effective and had encouraging results from patients from areas of multiple deprivation in Glasgow.

She said: “People involved in the study said that the approach is more individualised and feels different.

"Of the 17 people who took part, 15 reported positive behaviour changes."

The researchers are based in Glasgow Caledonian University's School of Health and Life Sciences’ Research Centre for Health (ReaCH).