Research

A SSiM-based research team including Jonathan Reinarz (PI), Shane Ewen (Co-I; Leeds Beckett University) and Rebecca Wynter (RF), funded by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Standard Grant, are undertaking a major four-year project that draws together expertise from the history of medicine, the senses, psychological trauma, disability, emergency services, and urban history.

The Forged by Fire: Burns Injury and Identity in Britain, c.1800-2000 project will generate an innovative programme of public engagement and burns awareness activities, including a graphic novel by artist Sarah Silverwood Taylor, delivered in collaboration with local fire services and other external partners.

Throughout the past two centuries, Britons have experienced personal and collective tragedies involving burns and scalds, which have been connected to British culture and society and were rooted in the habits, practices and material culture of home, workplace, war, and play. Using the distinctive residential and industrial milieus of three case studies, Glasgow, Birmingham and London, and encompassing perspectives from Belfast and Cardiff and ‘iconic’ fires and disasters, this project will investigate how burns have shaped individual, group and urban identity in modern Britain. Not only will this embrace explorations of professional identity, from the emergency services and burns teams to wounded service personnel, but also class, gender and race through considerations of, for example, acid-attacked women and the New Cross fire.

Histories of Sexual Health in Britain is an interdisciplinary project supported by the UKRI and led by Dr Anne Hanley.  It traces our sexual-health histories from the end of the First World War to the beginning of the AIDS crisis and brings those histories to bear on health challenges and inequalities facing us today.

History of Medicine is a discrete research unit within SSiM, and plays an important part in the understanding of the progress and current dilemmas facing modern biomedical science and clinical practice today.  We are primarily interested in the following areas:  History of medical institutions, medical education, medical specialisation, including physiology and sports medicine, histories of food, alcohol, and the senses.

Qualitative Research Methods/Sociology:  This research group brings together all those who use qualitative methods in their research. Our group provides guidance for nested qualitative studies now commonly included in clinical trials and develops qualitative research in collaboration with colleagues at the School of Health and Population Sciences and across the University

The Mixed Methods Multimorbidity Study (MiMMS) seeks to identify challenges GPs and hospital consultants’ face when managing patients with several chronic conditions.  In this study we will also identify factors that allow clinical guidelines to be incorporated into everyday practice, as well as assessing the number of medications prescribed in primary care in the West Midlands. 

Exploring the Ethics of Care on Social Media: an interdisciplinary network  The network’s activities all coalesce around this central question: “What is care in the context of social media and what forms does it take?” By engaging with a wide variety of cyberspaces the network explores what it means to care on and through social media and the ethical challenges this might pose both online and offline.

Working conditions, junior doctors and mental health

A multi-disciplinary team, led by Ruth Riley and collaborators at Manchester (Appleby), Keele (Chew-Graham), UCL (Buszewicz), Birkbeck (Teoh) and junior doctors, are undertaking a NIHR funded research project to explore the views and experiences of junior doctors working in the NHS. We are interested in identifying working conditions and work cultures associated with psychological distress, self-harm and suicidal risk. We are undertaking qualitative in-depth interviews and an online survey to gather the views and experiences of junior doctors in order to improve the mental health and wellbeing of frontline staff.

Identifying the impact on and support needs of NHS staff following a colleague's suicide: A study to inform postvention guidance

A multidisciplinary team of researchers in clinical settings, academia and the charity sector as well as front-line medical staff have developed this project. It is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme. 

The full impact of experiencing a suicide on staff who work in health settings is unknown and there is currently no postvention guidance or benchmark standard to assist NHS organisations or managers to support staff. Our research will address the gap in knowledge by using the experiences of staff to build a better understanding of postvention need.