Public health and social policy, School of Health and Social Care

Staff within the School have established work streams and research programmes which examine public health and social policy across all dimensions of health.

Professor Vasilios Ioakimidis 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. Most of Professor Ioakimidis’s research revolves around the broad theme of Social Work in Extremis, exploring social work practice in the context of unpredictable and extraordinary political, social, economic, and environmental change.
Other researchers in the School are involved in a 5-year project funded NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East of England a collaboration between Peterborough and Cambridge NHS Trust, and the university of Cambridge, East Anglia, Hertfordshire, and Essex. Professor Joffe is a standing member of the Management Executive Group, and Professor Ewen Speed is the implementation lead for the theme called “Inclusive Involvement in Research for Practice Led Health and Social Care” and Professor Gill Green.
A Better Start Southend (ABSS) is a national lottery funded programme which responds to the link between economic deprivation and poor life chances. A team of senior research officers are working on a range of community projects which include a formative evaluation lead by Professor Vicky Joffe with Dr Aaron Wyllie and a summative evaluation led by Professor Anuj Kapilashrami. The School is working with a number of strategic partners in the region including Southend Borough Council, Southend Police and Southend NHS Trust, and leading on an inter-disciplinary research team undertaking all research and evaluation activities for the research programme.
Eastern ARC Academic Research Consortium is a strategic collaboration between the universities of East Anglia, Essex, and Kent. The Eastern ARC have also launched a mentoring scheme. Professor Ewen Speed is a co-investigator on a UKRI collaborative project across 4 universities looking at differences in the volunteering response across the 4 UK jurisdictions.
Professor Anuj Kapilashrami, Director of Global Engagement and Partnerships, is the founding chair and leading a programme of research on migration and heath via the Migration Health South Asia Network.
The GEMMS research group brings together academics and practitioners with relevant expertise and experience in six institutions across four countries. The group will develop an evidence-informed intervention to provide on-going support to migrants in precarious situations in SA and India, and border spaces in Myanmar and Zimbabwe. The research group will establish a programme of work to generate new knowledge, improved understandings, and co-designed training and public health solutions. HSCs contribution will be led by Professor Anuj Kapilashrami
Professor Mariachiara Di Cesare is the Director of the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing which is committed to supporting the next generation of researchers in public health and wellbeing.

Group lead

Professor Vasilios Ioakimidis

Professor of Social Work

School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex

Our projects

Evaluating recurrent care and edge of care services

Evaluation of A Better Start Southend

Foundation Report for the British Association of Social Workers Human Rights Advisory Group

This project will create a written document that highlights human rights within the context of social work practice.

Gendered violence & poor mental health among migrants in precarious situations (GEMMS)

Resilience and delivery of HIV care in areas of violence and crime in South Africa

This Health and Social Care project examines how care of HIV patients can be carried out in areas with a high crime rate and endemic gang-related violence.

Postgraduate Research

We welcome postgraduate applicants who are interested in developing their expertise around area of public health and global health perspectives through a research degree.

You can find out more about the work of Anuj Kapilashrami in Global Public Health, international perspectives in social work by Vasilios Ioakimidis, and the work of the wider team by browsing the profiles listed below.

We also have links with researchers and post-doctoral researchers in in the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing led by Mariachiara Di Cesare and the team.

Studentships

PhD: Disrupting the cycle of gendered violence and poor mental health among migrants in precarious situations (GEMMS)

We are recruiting 3 PhD candidates for this studentship, which will focus on the poorly understood link between gendered violence and poor mental and psychosocial health and how these are experienced by migrant and mobile groups.

The successful applicants will be registered and start at the University of Essex, with extensive periods of field work in years 2 and 3.

We are particularly looking for candidates with an undergraduate and Masters degree, familiarity with quantitative or qualitative methods and data analysis experience, and knowledge of local languages that may be spoken in India, Myanmar, South Africa, or Zimbabwe.

Public health and social policy

Group lead

Professor Vasilios Ioakimidis

Our projects

Evaluating recurrent care and edge of care services

Evaluation of A Better Start Southend

Foundation Report for the British Association of Social Workers Human Rights Advisory Group

Gendered violence & poor mental health among migrants in precarious situations (GEMMS)

Resilience and delivery of HIV care in areas of violence and crime in South Africa

Postgraduate Research

Studentships

PhD: Disrupting the cycle of gendered violence and poor mental health among migrants in precarious situations (GEMMS)

Current doctoral research

Exploring social inclusion and participation: assessing the impact of the Care Act (2014) on the social experience of being a carer

A critical examination of the political construction and development of social work in Greece with refugees and asylum seekers in the humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

Our researchers

Academics

Research staff

Postgraduate Students