Public and Community Health Research Group
The Public and Community Health Research Group has a particular focus on understanding the health of populations, including that of women and local communities. It aims to bring together research active staff, early career researchers and doctoral students across cognate disciplines with an interest in public health. The group will provide opportunities to both learn about existing research activity and become involved.
Public health recognizes that health is influenced by many factors including lifestyle, social and community networks, and environmental and working conditions. The policy agenda focuses on lifestyle factors such as diet and nutrition, sedentary behaviour, and substance and tobacco use. However, research in this field is wide ranging and may include many different topics: addressing gambling related harms, reducing alcohol related offending, supporting young people experiencing mental health problems, tackling gender-based violence as well as building future resilience and preparedness for health shocks and critical population health issues like climate change.
Responses that are developed from research may include: new forms of service delivery including trauma-informed maternity care or physical activity pathways through primary care; capacity building of skills such as brief interventions and policy advocacy in relation to criminal exploitation of women and girls or tobacco and vaping initiatives.
The group includes researchers who are part of the Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Team which works with local authorities across the UK to evaluate interventions and build an evidence base about what works.
Professional bodies identify public health as a key area of activity and one of the aims of the research group is to increase enthusiasm for this research area, help staff to recognize their role in public health and build awareness of the existing evidence base and knowledge gaps to be filled.
Get involved
This is a new research group, and our aim is to promote and cohere research activity in this wide field and to be a vibrant and learning environment. For the coming year 2024/5, we will offer a series of events and presentations to raise awareness of the research agenda, opportunities for research activity, co-production methods, research impact and knowledge mobilization.
PHIRST South Bank is currently evaluating:
- a programme for young people in most need of mental health support in Berkshire. This evaluation will mean that the development of mental health support for young people locally will be better able to consider the needs of the people who are using these services and understand more from those delivering the services where things can be improved. This can lead to more informed decisions as to what local councils can do to support young people who are facing mental health challenges, both in and outside of the school environment.
- a complex strategy to reduce serious youth violence in Lambeth (Lambeth Made Safer) and its implementation. The evaluation findings will help other local authorities looking to reduce serious youth violence, providing insight and understanding into how to effectively implement a violence reduction public health intervention which employs both a public health and anti-racist approach.
- a strategy to embed public health in planning processes
Professor Tirion Havard is working on a project on transformative justice funded by the British Academy and Nuffield Foundation. The research explores the effectiveness of transformative justice in creating stronger connections between women with convictions and the communities around them.
Professor Tirion Havard advises on how technology can be used as a tool in violence against women and girls including the Deputy Mayor for London on policing and crime (MOPAC), National Police Chief Council and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Cyber Security (CYBER) and has written extensively e.g. (Serious Youth Violence; Parliamentary insight: domestic abuse and C-19, a year into the pandemic. Review available here)
Dr Sarah Church is working with Atatürk University, Turkey, in relation to ethical challenges experienced by student midwives for example abortion, family planning and currently exploring issues of health literacy in relation to sexual and reproductive health.
Professors Susie Sykes and Jane Wills and Dr Cath Jenkins are all members of the Global Working Group on Health Literacy and have written extensively on health literacy which is an emerging area of enquiry in health care.