Strathclyde’s Centre for Health Policy is an academic hub for fresh perspectives on healthcare and public health policy. We are firmly rooted in Scotland, but with strong international engagement generating valuable comparative insights and learning. We value relationships with policy and practice, work directly with affected communities, and protect space for critical and conceptual academic analysis. We spearhead innovative qualitative and mixed methods research into health policy, including participatory research with communities. We equip our students with the knowledge and transferable skills they need to thrive via our innovative MSc in Health and Social Policy.
We welcome visiting PhD students and academic staff keen to engage with the Centre community, during a stay in Scotland’s biggest and most cosmopolitan city.
The Centre for Health Policy’s current cross-disciplinary activities cover five broad thematic areas:
Reducing inequalities
This theme brings together the Centre’s expertise on health inequalities, and the social and economic inequalities that shape them. We take an intersectional approach to work with marginalised communities, including people experiencing mental ill health, people living in care and people experiencing social and/or economic disadvantage. Centre for Health Policy members research and teach around social and economic inequalities in health, while working with external advocates and policy actors to support research-informed policy and practice.
Public mental health
This theme profiles the Centre’s core expertise in the field of public mental health, particularly around key topics such as recovery, stigma and inequalities. It builds on Centre for Health Policy’s strong links with policy, practice, and international partners, and develops interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange activities including a focus on participatory approaches.
Participation and Engagement in Health
This theme speaks both to Centre members’ own commitments to participatory research, and to policy and practice commitments to empowering and engaged ways of working. These are especially strong in Scotland and in some of our key areas of interest, such as mental health. This theme, which connects to the Citizenship & Communities research cluster, provides a foundation for helping to promote the Centre for Health Policy’s expertise in public participation and engagement.
Innovation in health systems, policy and practice
This theme brings together Centre for Health Policy members concerned with the use of, and policies around, innovation (including digital innovations) in health policy, systems and practice. It particularly supports existing collaborations across the School of Social Work and Social Policy, and other parts of the University including the Faculties of Science and of Engineering.
Long-term perspectives in health and wellbeing
This theme addresses our interests in understanding long-term changes in health and wellbeing, and their relationship to economic, social and health policies. It includes colleagues working on the history of height, sickness and mortality, as well as broader histories of health and policy within the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare.