Using resilience approaches in practice

The deadline for 2012 Doctoral College Studentships has now passed.

The Brighton Doctoral College is pleased to welcome applications from self-funded or externally sponsored students for programmes of research in this or a closely related area, beginning from September 2012. Applications are welcome from students wishing to study full time or part time, and applications are welcome from students in employment who have the support of their employers.

• Based in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences
• Supervisors: Professor Angie Hart; Dr Carl Walker.

Application deadline

The university cannot guarantee that students can start at their requested date unless deadlines are met.

• UK/EU students: The deadline for the university to receive applications for an entry date of October is the 1 August, for January entry it is the 1 November and for May it is the 1 March.
• International students: The deadline for the university to receive applications for an entry date of October is the 1 June, for January entry it is the 1 September and for May it is the 1 January.

Apply now.

Applications are invited for a full time funded 3 year PhD studentship on the topic of resilience approaches in practice.

The aim of the study is to contribute to the Centre for Health Research’s growing body of participatory and user-involved/led research related to resilience. This fits within its health and social inequalities’ research programme which is wide-ranging, and includes a focus on social justice. The programme includes broad policy issues, but also issues related to the individual level, for example unequal access to services, or how individual disadvantaged children can be supported to become more resilient. Current research in this area tackles, in various ways, how best to design and deliver resilience-based approaches for practice. Studies underway include building community university partnership resilience, resilience community of practice for the targeted youth service in East Sussex, and arts based approaches to building resilience in young people with learning difficulties and those with experience of mental health services. Find out more.

The proposed PGR studentship area has, at this stage, been left purposely broad to give the opportunity for engagement with researchers from other Schools working in this area, depending on the successful candidate’s specific interests and experiences. Supervision expertise includes quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, approaches to building resilience via practice interventions/co-production of knowledge in relation to resilience building, resilient practitioner research, school-based resilience programmes and approaches, parent and child resilience (especially disadvantaged families), and community of practice development in relation to applying resilience-based approaches. There is a strong and growing resilience research group within the university with three postgraduate research students already attached to it, a monthly resilience forum and a number of NHS and Research Council grants connected to the group.  The lead supervisor, Professor Angie Hart has focused on resilience research for the past 8 years, and is embedded in the international resilience research community hence projects with a comparative perspective are readily welcome. The recent work of second supervisor Dr Carl Walker has focussed on the ways in which a variety of community organisations can facilitate wellbeing through impacting on individual and community resilience. Our resilience group works in close collaboration with user and practitioner groups who are partners on all our current projects and who co-host our resilience website www.boingboing.org.uk. Practice-based advisory support for the project can readily be obtained from our extensive group of partners, and the prospective student would be joining a large community of scholars, practitioners, parents and young people with an active interest and expertise in resilience.

The project offers a wide range of research training opportunities where the student will be able to acquire essential research skills.

References

Experience in Mind, Taylor, S., & Hart, A. (2011). Mental health and the Resilient Therapy toolkit: A guide for parents about mental health written by young people. Bath: MBE.

Aumann, K., & Hart, A. (2009). Helping children with complex needs bounce back: Resilient Therapy for parents and professionals. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Hart, A., Blincow, D., & Thomas, H. (2007). Resilient Therapy with children and families. Hove: Routledge.

Hart, A. & Aumann, K. (in press).Challenging inequalities through community university partnerships. In P. Benneworth (Ed.), University engagement with socially excluded communities: Towards the idea of 'the engaged university'. Dordrecht: Springer.

Cameron, J., Walker, C., Hart, A., Sadlo, G., Haslam, I., & The Retain Support Group (in press). Supporting workers with mental health problems to retain employment: Users’ experiences of a UK job retention project. WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, & Rehabilitation.

Hart, A., Blincow, D., & Thomas, H. (2008). Resilient Therapy: Strategic therapeutic engagement with children in crisis. Child Care in Practice, 4(2), 131-145

Cameron, J., & Hart, A. (2007). Case study 8. Ethical issues in obtaining informed consent for research from those recovering from acute mental health problems. Research Ethics Review, 3(3), 91.

Find out more about research at the University of Brighton.