The half-day event at King’s College London’s Waterloo campus included presentations highlighting the challenges of addressing health inequalities in research and research posters from around 20 local organisations and research teams (members of the audience pictured below).
Dr Jane Stafford, associate director of operations at ARC South London and Professor Tushna Vandrevala, professor of health psychology at Kingston University and co-deputy lead for capacity building at the ARC, welcomed everyone and outlined the event’s aim to explore how we work together to effectively understand and reduce health inequalities.
We are trying to think of novel ways of listening and learning from each other. This event is an opportunity to come together and connect around these issues, which are so important to all of us here today
The first speakers were researchers from the CONNECT study, which aims to find out how social capital - social relationships, networks and other resources – can promote community thriving and improve mental health in racially and ethnically minoritised groups in south-east London. The study explores how factors such as gender, age, sexuality, migration and socioeconomic status can intersect to impact health inequalities. The researchers use innovative methods to gather feedback such as Photovoice, art and creating Zines.
Working with CONNECT has been one of the best things that has happened for me in the last three years. It has made me think of research differently - I can be involved and speak about my experiences and share in the experiences of others
We were working with people with lived experience as well as academics, so the essence of power changed. We recognised that the power structures exist, but we addressed them
The next panel presentation was from QUEERCIRCLE, an LGBTQ+ led charity which uses community-based and creative research approaches to investigate the connections between health inequalities experienced by LGBTQ+ people and systems of oppression (for example, see this report and Zine).
Pictured above: Dr Frances Williams, health and research lead, QUEERCIRCLE speaking as part of the panel with Millo Bianchini and Cas Olowoyo, chaired by Dr Stan Papoulias
Millo Bianchini, a musician, facilitator and researcher, and Cas Olowoyo a vocalist, researcher and educator, both spoke of a project called Queering the Voice, which explores how the way we use our voice is shaped through normative assumptions around gender and race. Millo explained how embodied vocalising can be a tool for building resilience and wellbeing for queer people. They said: “We need to facilitate participants to become their own researchers in their own lives, which supports knowledge exchange and mutual understanding, creating meaningful connections between academics and LGBTQ+ people.”
The research team used vocalisation workshops to enable LGBTQ+ people to express their emotions and thoughts on their experiences of harm and discrimination (listen to a sound clip of the vocalisations). Following the workshops, people felt a sense of confidence in their bodies and in their lives and work. They had a greater sense of community and confidence in their queerness.
The final panel, chaired by Savi Hensman, ARC South London’s involvement coordinator, was a discussion between Isaac Samuels, co-lead for the Amplifying Voices Programme, part of the Co-production Collective, and Dr Hil Aked, policy manager at Medact, which brings together health workers to fight for health justice.
Hil suggested that ethical research on health inequalities is inherently political and gave the example of the Nags Head Estate project, where residents of the Nags Head housing estate in Bethnal Green (managed by the Peabody housing association) undertook their own investigation into the impact of mould, damp and other housing conditions on their health. The project’s recommendations led to estate improvements. Isaac highlighted the urgent need to move away from inviting people with lived experience into research spaces to perform their trauma and emphasised the need for supportive inclusive environments.
Racism does exist in co-production spaces. We want to amplify the voices of the global majority and understand their experiences of co-production
After the presentations, there was a Q&A with the audience and the panel (pictured below), followed by poster viewing, networking and lunch.
Closing the event Professor Tushna Vandrevala, highlighted central themes in the discussion, including moving away from tokenism in public involvement to real co-production, understanding the issues of racism and calling it out when we see it, and looking behind the statistics when we discuss health inequalities to understand real experiences.
A lot of us here today are researchers or involved in research; we have a responsibility of care. Knowledge is power. But how do we really consider historical and contemporary inequalities? How do we ensure that we move away from shallow participation and extractive nature of research to really think about ‘stopping researching and starting campaigning’, in the words of one of our panelists
Dr Stan Papoulias, a research fellow at King’s College London and the ARC’s lead for patient and public involvement research, who organised the event with the ARC’s capacity building team, reflected:
Knowledge exchange events are opportunities to redefine what counts as knowledge and whose knowledge counts. We are hoping to host a further cycle of such events, exploring how we can develop research which is truly inclusive and participatory and which attends to the intimate connections between health and social inequity
Find out more about the work of the organisations in the presentations:
