Marginalised and Coastal Community Health
Coastal communities, the villages, towns and cities of England’s coast, include many of the most beautiful, vibrant and historically important places in the country. They also have some of the worst health outcomes in England, with low life expectancy and high rates of many major diseases as highlighted in the Chief Medical Officer’s Annual Report 2021.
There are many reasons for poor health outcomes in coastal communities which are unique and often shaped by historical and cultural factors. Our coastal communities across Sussex and Kent, are diverse, with pockets of deprivation and ill health often overlooked amongst much affluence.
Our work involves some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups and communities who experience the worse health in these regions, and helps provide evidence to underpin local initiatives to help reduce health inequalities.
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Audited
The AUDITED project is a collaboration between the Universities of Westminster, Sussex and Southampton and is in partnership with Positive East charity who have designed and piloted an automated chatbot, called Pat, to improve knowledge of STIs/HIV and promote online screening services.
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Equity
The study aims to investigate the differences in the severity of mental health diagnosis and care pathways between foreign-born women and their British-born counterparts from their first access (appointment) to services.
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Dementia Risk Prediction in Areas of Social Deprivation
The UK Government has called for more research into ways of identifying people who do not yet have dementia but have a high chance of developing it, so that early interventions can be developed to reduce their risk. The Alzheimer’s Research UK charity recently funded a research team at The University of Manchester to develop a dementia risk assessment algorithm (calculating tool) “DemCheck” for use in GP practices.
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REDUCe2
This project aims to optimise palliative management in often vulnerable individuals with refractory ascites due to advanced cirrhosis, in order to achieve better health-related quality of life (HRQoL) than is possible through standard of care.
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Resilience
Resilience+ is a research and advocacy initiative led by BSMS and the Beyond LIVING partnership of the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), the International Community of Women living with HIV (ICW) and the Global Network of Young People Living with HIV (Y+).
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Living Well with HIV
This project aims to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV by increasing access to mental health services across Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.
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Improving ACCESS TO SEXUAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING
The overarching aim is to address sexual and reproductive ill health in midlife women who live in coastal communities in East Sussex by improving access to relevant healthcare research and services.
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Hopeful
Developing a hope-focused intervention to prevent mental health problems and improve social outcomes for young women who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
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CATALYST
CATALYST is a research project run by Brighton and Sussex Medical School and the University of Sussex. Our goal is to improve the quality and coverage of youth mental health services regionally and learn lessons that can be applied elsewhere. Over a period of three years, we will work in three vulnerable communities with high levels of social and economic deprivation in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
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How does social care support older adults’ food and drink-related needs/outcomes?
This study, funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research and led by the University of Kent, explores food and drink needs of older people using homecare. We have: 1) scoped the existing literature to identify what is already known about the food-related needs of older adults living at home using home care services; 2) analysed data from a national survey of people using social care services in England, the Adult Social Care Survey (ASCS), to understand the extent of food and drink-related needs.
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Intervention for student carer mental health and wellbeing
Student carers are disadvantaged with respect to both their health and wellbeing and their academic achievements, experiencing mental health problems and difficulty negotiating their student-carer identity. The overarching aim of this project is to co-produce a sustainable mental health and wellbeing intervention for student carers.
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SPICES
The SPICES-Sussex project was run team of researchers based at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) who are working alongside well-known and trusted local community organisations to help make their communities healthier. The SPICES project focused on the heart health of the people within four local communities in Sussex. The SPICES project ran from 2019-2022 and is now in the process of publishing it’s findings.
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Left-shifting care with marginalised groups
Waiting lists for youth mental health and people living with frailty are exploding. Huge shortages of staff add to this burning platform. The public furthermore has little insight into their specific needs. They have unrealistic expectations about what care can offer them. The only way forward is to left-shift care and support. Good assessments are crucial. We need to involve self-care and the voluntary and community sector much more, but that requires evidence-based tools, models of care and training.
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The Power 1
Promoting improvement in Women's services in the East Sussex region. This study aims to explore the views of women aged 40-65 years who live in East Sussex, and make their voices heard, in terms of their priorities for women's health and wellbeing services.
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The POWER 2
Promoting improvement in Womens' health and Wellbeing Services for Women Study in Coastal Communities in the UK. This study aims to address three important national and regional healthcare and research challenges: improving women's health and wellbeing services, improving healthcare in coastal communities, and destigmatising women-centred aspects of sexual health and sexual wellbeing.
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Health Counts 2024
Health Counts is a survey of health and lifestyles in Brighton and Hove that comes around just once every ten years. The survey asks questions about the health and lifestyle issues local people experience in different parts of Brighton and Hove.
Learn more about the project here >