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Research

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People

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Something else

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Research Group

Physical and mental health and wellbeing across the lifespan

Small groups of people sitting outside on grass with trees in the background. To the right some more people are walking up some concrete steps.

The School has a range of wellbeing projects where staff across the divisions are involved in research and scholarship.

Dr ZhiMin Xiao is the academic leading this research group and will be co-ordinating a range of meetings and activities with a range of staff and PGR students.
In addition to methodological research and education, Dr Xiao is interested in child welfare, particularly in the context of trauma-informed and rights-based research into family injustice, children, and youth wellbeing, particularly in the context of their interactions with digital technologies.
Dr Anna Pettican is the deputy lead for this research group and has interests in participatory research and physical in/activity. Her research has included a participatory project with a football league for people with people with experience of mental distress. Dr Pettican is actively involved in developing more inclusive and preventative health practices in relation to physical in/activity via her leadership of the national #MovingOccupationalTherapists programme, funded by Sport England.
Strategic support of mental health and health services research has been enabled investigating well-being and social media use in Understanding Society and Professor Susan McPherson’s work with professional bodies and NHS Trusts on psychological treatments and guidelines for depression and developing maternal mental health.
Dr Mary Kennedy has developed networks and support service improvements to help people living with dementia and their families.
Professor Camille Cronin's research on ageing has looked at dementia and oral health, dementia and culture, and dementia in the acute hospital setting. Fundamentals of Care – dementia (DemFoCAS) is a partnership project with ESNEFT (East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust ) to evaluate care of patients with dementia in acute settings focusing on fundamentals of care. The research team is led by Camille Cronin, with Rachel Marrow, Victor Ashby, Jana Abel-Jawadova, Thomas Currid, and Victoria Joffe. Professor Cronin is also co-leading an international group of nurse scientists looking at menopause and wellbeing with a focus on menopause in the workplace involving universities around the world.
Dr John Day has developed research in the areas of physical activity and men’s experiences of living with obesity.

Group lead

Dr ZhiMin Xiao

Senior Lecturer and Group Lead

School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex

Dr Anna Pettican

Lecturer and Group Lead

School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex

Events

Past events

Autumn Term 2023

4th September 2023 - "The Impact of Trauma on Children’s and Young People’s Mental and Physical Health" - Dr Antonella Trotta

25th October 2023 - "Pandemics, Xenophobia, and Fear" - Dr Zhou Xun

Our projects

Improving mouth care in an acute hospital trust

We worked with staff in two acute orthopaedic wards to develop a one-hour workshop on how to improve mouth care for patients.

Nursing students' cultural beliefs and understanding of dementia

In this project, run in collaboration with the University of Greenwich and Oxford Brookes, we looked at the impact of culture on how nursing students understand dementia, and how this is reflected in their care of dementia patients.

Postgraduate Research

With quite a broad area we invite potential postgraduate applicants to look at the team’s specialist knowledge, skills and research in health and well-being including physical and mental health along the lifespan.

If you are interested in doing a research degree there are a number of researchers, allied health and nursing professionals who have developed research profiles. You can browse the list below for potential supervisors.

Current doctoral research

Exploring the determinants of vaccine hesitancy in carers of under five children and the impact on childhood immunization status

This PhD research aims to find out how sociodemographic status of parents, their knowledge of vaccine preventable diseases, their attitude, and perception affect their child's immunization status and if any of this is a determinant of vaccine hesitancy.

Olajumoke Aladenola

The impact of the environment on engagement in therapeutic activities of service users in an acute mental health inpatient unit

The study aims to identify factors within these environments which are perceived by staff and service users as promoting or inhibiting service user engagement in therapeutic activities and to make recommendations for improvements.

It uses a mixed methods approach, involving questionnaires for staff and patients, and a qualitative component of Participatory Action Research.

Ellen Serwaa Adomako