Health and social work research

Better healthcare in care homes

Find out how our research is helping to identify ways to improve healthcare for the nearly half a million people living in care homes in the UK.

Understanding young people

Our research is shaping national and international policy on safeguarding the health and wellbeing of young people.

Overview

Research is an essential component of the academic work within the School of Health and Social Work and supports the excellent teaching that takes place within the School.

Our research underpins and informs teaching and contributes to the knowledge base of students, practitioners and academics.

Our work has made a significant impact on policy and practice in areas such as

self-management of long-term conditions
end of life care
vulnerability in later life
health risk behaviours of children and young people
domestic violence
dementia care
mental health recovery
and falls prevention.

Patient and public involvement is a core strategy across all programme areas and the Super User Public Involvement Strategy informs research as well as learning, teaching and recruitment of staff and students. Hosted within the School is The Public Involvement in Research Group (PIRG). PIRG is made up of members of the public and service users who provide a lay perspective on the research carried out in the school.

International quality

Research in Health and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire is of an internationally-recognised calibre. In the 2021 REF, over 91% of the research outputs in nursing and allied health professions were rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. We work with multiple national and international academic partners, the NHS, Social Care, public and voluntary sector, EU partners and other international collaborators.

Research structure

Research in Health and Social Work benefits from a strategically developed Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC) ad the Centre for Applied Clinical, Health and Care Research (CACHE) as well as research groups in related fields of social work and mental health.

Key areas of research include the following:

More about research at the University of Hertfordshire.