Leeds Institute of Health and Social Work
Acting Director: Mrs Marian Hinds
Academic Unit Heads
Long Term Conditions: Dr Jim Jolly
Family, Child and Maternal Health: Mrs Marian Hinds
Psycho-Social Sciences: Dr Janet Hirst
First Contact/Acute Care: Dr Janet Holt
About the Institute
The Institute of Health & Social Work will provide a creative and dynamic environment for the exploration of real world issues related to health and social care by inculcating a shared understanding of collegiality, a research based approach to teaching and learning and the development of research themes that are cognisant of the needs of practice and the research strengths of academic staff within the institute. The institute will aim to increase the visibility and impact of research on practice and research lead teaching by attracting high calibre staff and motivated students.
The Institute will comprise programmes of research, teaching and learning and Enterprise & Knowledge Transfer (EKT) in the broad areas of long term conditions, acute care, family, maternal and community health and the psycho-social sciences.
The Academic Units
The Academic Unit of Long Term Conditions will respond to the challenge of increases in the incidence and prevalence of chronic disease as a global phenomenon and its subsequent consequences for management of long term conditions which represents the greatest healthcare challenge to developed Western countries. The unit aims to meet this challenge directly through its academic research and teaching activities, by making a positive impact upon the care and management of long term conditions, meeting local, regional and global needs through the development of a portfolio of activity that will place the School of Healthcare at Leeds at the forefront of professional practice. We will be enterprising, generate novel approaches to the accumulation of knowledge and transfer our output with the single aim of making a positive difference to anyone with a long term condition.
The Academic Unit of Psychosocial Sciences includes staff with a rich clinical and academic knowledge base emerging from counsellors, mental health and adult nurses, midwives, sociologists and psychologists. The unit's teaching is informed and underpinned by researchers within and outside of the unit and is professionally regulated. Learning and teaching programmes focus around counselling, mental health and learning disabilities; we also teach a range of psychosocial issues applied to health and social care across the School of Healthcare, wider university, nationally and internationally. Research activities within the unit are dynamic and researchers currently collaborate locally, across the UK and the international arena.
The Family, Child & Maternal Health Unit is one of four units within the Institute for Health & Social Care. It consists of a wide variety of dedicated healthcare professionals including specialists in children's nursing, midwifery, social work, public health and active researchers all contributing to meet the needs of the local national and intentional agenda of the School of Healthcare. This exciting time offers opportunity and development for well established lecturers and researchers to engage in working in a range of aspects of care across disciplines and subject themes to increase research capacity and deliver inspirational teaching to our students. It is envisaged that staff working in this unit will adopt new technologies to accommodate teaching and learning to deliver flexible and innovative programmes and continue to be visionary to meet the needs of the future healthcare practitioner. The unit already offers a wide portfolio of activities and we predict that this will increase and diversify as we become more firmly established to achieve our ultimate aim of world class research, scholarship and education and meet the university target for 2015. There are already areas of excellence within the unit such as social work which was placed 3rd in the Guardian University League table for 2010.
