Audrey Yong is a Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy and Practice Learning Leader for the MSc pre-registration Occupational Therapy course in the School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences at University of Brighton.
Audrey's research interests stems from her experience as a clinical specialist working in partnership with people with learning/intellectual disabilities who have complex health and social care needs, and their family caregivers. She is currently working toward her PhD by Publication, which integrates her clinical knowledge and experience with her personal interest in the concepts of humanising and empathic home designing (designing that puts the person in the centre and can evoke emotion, capture attention; and influence sensation and wellbeing). This considers the humanistic and sensory influence of the home and how it may affect one's feelings and participation in order to thrive and flourish in that space. Her collaborative research with experts-by-experience and colleagues in practice aims to increase the understanding of the occupational therapy contribution to this area. The overall goal is to better support people with intellectual disabilities to live a safe and sustainable quality of life in their homes and communities.
In 2023, Audrey was awarded the Royal College of Occupational therapists Research Career Development grant to support the following research study: The occupational therapy contribution to good home environment design to support the participation and wellbeing of people with intellectual or learning disabilities.
In 2025, she was awarded further funding from University of Brighton Research & Knowledge Exchange (R&KE) Development Fund to evaluate the contribution of Experts-by Experience (EbEs) in the RCOT funded project above and to continue working collaboratively with EbEs to develp their research partnership.
She is working on this and a number of other research projects here.
Audrey's research supervisory interests include (though not limited to):
- The role and contribution of occupational therapy to humanistic and empathic home environment designing.
- The importance and influence of the home environment (in relation to concepts of 'doing, being, becoming, belonging').
- The concept of belonging in one's community.
- Conducting a systematic or scoping review as a research method.
- The use of photographic methods in research (photovoice, photo elicitation, photo novella).
- Human rights and occupational justice for marginalised people.
- Learning or intellectual disabilities.
- Sensory integration and processing.
- Dementia and family caregiving.
- Conducting a systematic or scoping review as a research method.
- Qualitative research.
You can find out more about Audrey's teaching and research here.