Institute of Health and Health Policy Research areas of expertise

Our contribution is in five main areas:

Health – physical health, mental health and wellbeing, disability and long-term conditions, across the life-course.

Diversity and inequalities –  diversity, and inequalities in health and social care services in disadvantaged populations.

Health service organisation – service reconfiguration, public-private partnership working, health communication.

Public health – global public health, illness prevention, community strategies for health improvement, hygiene and bio-security, healthcare-acquired infections and infection control.

Professional practice and education in health and social care – including nursing, midwifery, social work practice, pharmacy services and professional education and training.

We make this contribution through the three research centres outlines below

Health Policy Research Unit

The unit, established for more than 20 years, brings together researchers who publish research of international standing and contribute to debates in health and health policy at local, national and international levels.

Areas of focus include:

Health service organisation and reform – including health policy processes, service reconfiguration, public-private partnerships, partnership working, pharmacy services, health communication, mental health and education and training.

Public and patient involvement (PPI) – including lay involvement in the NHS, research into PPI policy, health consumer groups and patients’ organisations, consultation processes on health strategies and support for researchers to incorporate PPI into their research design.

Diversity and health inequalities – including the health and health care experiences of South Asian communities, especially sickle cell, thalassaemia and reproductive experiences, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and inequalities in health and health care.

Public health – including health promotion, community strategies for health improvement, hygiene and bio-security, healthcare-acquired infections, risk and infection control, alcohol policy, social responsibility and health.

Director of the Health Policy Research Unit is Dr Sally Ruane Reader in Social Policy

T: +44 (0) 116 207 8732
E: sruane@dmu.ac.uk

Centre for LGBTQ Research

The Centre for LGBTQ Research conducts internationally recognised and pioneering research in LGBT issues. Conceptually innovative and empirically grounded in mixed methods research, the centre brings together interdisciplinary researchers with a distinctive focus on LGBT human rights in health and social care alongside work in identity theory and politics. Our approaches to research include public and patient Involvement, working alongside the users of public services to ensure their perspectives are represented in the work we do.

  • LGBT health inequalities
  • Social work and health inequalities
  • Loneliness and social support
  • Critical/qualitative health research
  • Health and wellbeing among BAME people from LGBT communities
  • Mental health
  • Identities and intersectionality

Professor Julie Fish, Director, Centre for LGBTQ Research and Chair in Social Work and Health Inequalities

T: 44 (0)116 257 7750
E: jfish@dmu.ac.uk

The Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre

The Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre draws together research expertise and scholarly activity in nursing and midwifery practice and education research across adult, mental health, learning disability and midwifery care. 

We undertake research with those who receive and give care throughout integrated health and social care systems. Our key research themes are professional nursing and midwifery practice, NHS workforce issues, nurse and midwifery education, and caring through the life course in adult, child, mental health and learning disability nursing and midwifery, older people, dementia and diabetes.

Working collaboratively with healthcare providers, charities, voluntary organisations and commercial companies, our research has changed clinical practice and guidelines nationally and internationally, as well as contributing to and shaping national policy.

We have a vibrant and supportive research environment, with longstanding relationships with NHS Trusts, the East Midlands Healthcare Workforce Deanery and other health and social care organisations and international links that span the globe from Finland to Japan, New Zealand to Brazil.

The centre is led by Jayne Brown Professor of Nursing

T: +44 (0)116 201 3961
E: jbrown@dmu.ac.uk