Dr Tom Douglass

Department of Social Work and Social Care
Research Fellow

Contact details

Address
Department of Social Work and Social Care
Park House
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston, Birmingham
B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Tom is currently a Research Fellow on the ‘Achieving Closure’ project. This research seeks to identify what happens when care homes for older people close, improve the processual evidence base to minimise negative outcomes and explore the experiences of the breadth of stakeholders conducting or impacted by care home closures. Beyond this project, Tom is also particularly engaged in the social analysis of vaccines.

Publications

Highlight publications

Calnan, M & Douglass, T 2020, 'Hopes, hesitancy and the risky business of vaccine development', Health, Risk and Society, vol. 22, no. 5-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2020.1846687

Douglass, T, Zafar, S & Glasby, J 2023, 'What happens when care homes close? A review of the literature', International Journal of Care and Caring. https://doi.org/10.1332/239788221X16753558695396

Recent publications

Book

Douglass, T & Anderson, A 2024, Vaccines in Society. 1 edn, Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61269-5

Calnan, M & Douglass, T 2022, Power, Policy and the Pandemic: A Sociological Analysis of COVID-19 Policy in England. Emerald Points, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. <https://books.emeraldinsight.com/book/detail/power-policy-and-the-pandemic/?k=9781802620108>

Article

Tanner, D, Harte, L, Douglass, T, Glasby, J & Zafar, S 2025, 'Social workers’ experiences of supporting older people when care homes close: critical gerontology as a professional tool', British Journal of Social Work.

Douglass, T, Tanner, D, Zafar, S, Allen, K, Iqbal, A, Needham, C & Glasby, J 2025, 'Understanding older people's experiences of care home closure through the lenses of precarity and transition', International Journal of Care and Caring, pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1332/23978821Y2025D000000147

Anderson, A, Douglass, T & Hobson-West, P 2024, 'Researching Childhood Vaccine Hesitancy in the Wake of COVID-19', Vaccine: X, vol. 16, 100450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvacx.2024.100450

Douglass, T 2023, 'Conceptual Tools for the Analysis of Bioeconomic Fairness and Efficiency', Asian Biotechnology and Development Review, vol. 25, no. 1&2, pp. 23-35. <https://www.ris.org.in/sites/default/files/2023-08/ABDR-March-July-2023.pdf>

Tremblett, M, Douglass, T, Joyce, J, Anderson, A, Flint, N & Spratt, T 2023, 'Learning from pandemic precarity: The future of early career researchers in qualitative health research', SSM - Qualitative Research in Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2023.100335

Hilário, AP, Scavarda, A, Numerato, D, Mendonça, J, Cardano, M, Marhankova, J, Gariglio, L, Vuolanto, P, Anderson , A, Auvinen, P, Bracke, P, Douglass, T, Hobson-West, P, Lermytte, E, Polak, P & Rudek, T 2023, 'Recruiting a hard-to-reach, hidden and vulnerable population: the methodological and practical pitfalls of researching vaccine-hesitant parents', Qualitative Health Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323231196439

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Douglass, T 2024, Climate catastrophe and the consequences for health in the UK. in R Akhtar (ed.), Climate Change and Human Health Scenarios : International Case Studies. 1 edn, Global Perspectives on Health Geography, Springer, Cham, pp. 229-238. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38878-1_15

Douglass, T & Calnan, M 2022, Medicalisation and pharmaceuticalisation: a conceptual analysis. in SC Scrimshaw, SD Lane, RA Rubinstein & J Fisher (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Social Studies in Health and Medicine. 2nd Revised edition edn, SAGE Publications, London. <https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-sage-handbook-of-social-studies-in-health-and-medicine/book258239>

Book/Film/Article review

Douglass, T 2023, 'Book review: Expertise in Crisis: The Ideological Contours of Public Scientific Controversies', Public Understanding of Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625231175948

Douglass, T 2022, 'Crawford, P. and Crawford, J.O. Cabin Fever – Surviving Lockdown in the Coronavirus Pandemic. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. 2021. pp.152 £16.99 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-80071-355-0.', Sociology of Health and Illness. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13510

Editorial

Calnan, M, Zinn, J & Douglass, T 2022, 'Editorial: The sociology of vaccines', F1000Research, vol. 11, 891. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.124587.1

Other contribution

Douglass, T, Glasby, J & Zafar, S 2023, What happens when care homes close?. Policy Press. <https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2023/05/09/what-happens-when-care-homes-close/>

Other report

Glasby, J, Allen, K, Bennett, M, Douglass, T, Iqbal, A, Kinghorn, P, Needham, C, Plappert, H, Roberts, T, Skrybant, M, Smith, D, Tanner, D, Taylor, B, Topping, A, Ward, L & Zafar, S 2025, Improving outcomes when care homes close: NIHR Programme Grant multi-methods study. National Institute for Health Research.

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