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Dr Stephen Handsley

Job: Programme Leader, BA Sociology / Senior Lecturer in Health Studies

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Allied Health Sciences

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH.

T: +44 (0)116 257 7883

E: shandsley@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/hls

 

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Personal profile

Dr Handsley is the Programme Leader for our BA Sociology Degree. His expertise lie in all aspects of social and cultural identity, performativity, medical sociology and death and dying.  He also teaches epidemiology, health promotion, public health and public mental health.

Research group affiliations

  • Health Policy Research Unit
  • Reproduction Research Group

Publications and outputs

  • Fostering Partnership Learning Communities: The Impact of Utilising International Student Field Trips to Facilitate and Co-Create Pedagogic Community Collaborations
    dc.title: Fostering Partnership Learning Communities: The Impact of Utilising International Student Field Trips to Facilitate and Co-Create Pedagogic Community Collaborations dc.contributor.author: Chouhan, Jagdish; Handsley, Stephen; Herriot, Christopher; McGowan, Marilyn dc.description.abstract: This article seeks to evaluate the impact of an International partnership, between De Montfort University (DMU), a UK based Higher Education (HE) institution, and Evans High School, a Community Partnership SchoolTM, located in the US state of Florida. Informed by the application of Maslow’s hierarchy of need, the success of Evans High School is illustrated in statistical reports conveyed by the school during DMU’s biannual study visits to the campus. The range of external providers has addressed many of the needs of students who otherwise would refrain from engaging in the learning process due to health, socio-economic, emotional, and cultural barriers. Thus, a disempowered, disadvantaged community has been encouraged to participate in their children’s education. The study visit has furnished ample evidence of the efficacy of the methodologies employed in this partnership initiative. However, the authors contend this success could be further enhanced by extending the partnership to embrace the approach and techniques of informal education, effectively utilised by Hope Community Centre in Apopka, especially in their “Sin Fronteras” project. This approach could be of significant benefit in building self-esteem and self-confidence in Evans’ students, enhancing extra-curricular activities, whilst delivering a co-created curriculum in a fun and engaging manner, drawing those at risk of marginalisation, academic failure, or under-achievement back into the mainstream. This utilisation of Freirean informal education praxis, based around empowering students, would prepare students for a post-school environment which lacks the meritocratic opportunities they may have been socialised to expect, whilst extending Evans’ impact far beyond the parameters of educational attainment. dc.description: The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.
  • Faith, mental health and deviance: possession or illness?
    dc.title: Faith, mental health and deviance: possession or illness? dc.contributor.author: Handsley, Stephen
  • Promoting public health: part 2
    dc.title: Promoting public health: part 2 dc.contributor.author: Handsley, Stephen
  • ‘Working with communities to promote public health
    dc.title: ‘Working with communities to promote public health dc.contributor.author: Handsley, Stephen; Sidell, Moyra
  • Community involvement and civic engagement in multidisciplinary public health
    dc.title: Community involvement and civic engagement in multidisciplinary public health dc.contributor.author: Handsley, Stephen
  • Sociology and Nursing: role performance in a psychiatric setting
    dc.title: Sociology and Nursing: role performance in a psychiatric setting dc.contributor.author: Handsley, Stephen; Stocks, Susan dc.description.abstract: The role of sociology in nursing continues to cast new light on many aspects of health and illness. Over the last 20 years, nursing practice has seen sociological theory become a valuable clinical tool, both in the diagnosis and prognosis of a wide range of illnesses and long-term conditions.Nevertheless, of these, the sociological examination of mental health problems and itsimpact upon nursing practitioners has received little coverage, simply because, as a discipline, mental health nursing has historically been wedded to a biomedical model, one which continues to embrace psychiatry/psychology as the driving force in the diagnosis and treatment of psychopathology. Adopting a sociological approach, this paper brings to light previously unexplored insights into the way nurses interact with patients experiencing mental health problems. Drawing on social interactionist methodology, this paper considers depression and other mental health problems in relation to current psychiatric nursing practice. Specifically, the paper focuses on aspects of role performance and interpersonal care in a psychiatric setting, and the impact the individual role may have on the wider aspects of institutional and official practices. The paper concludes by making a number of recommendations/observations for nursing practice. dc.description: © 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.
  • Gauging the effectiveness of community-based public health projects
    dc.title: Gauging the effectiveness of community-based public health projects dc.contributor.author: Handsley, Stephen; Noguera, Anita; Beaumont, Kythe
  • Promoting Mental Health and Social Inclusion
    dc.title: Promoting Mental Health and Social Inclusion dc.contributor.author: Handsley, Stephen
  • A Reader in promoting public health: challenge and controversy
    dc.title: A Reader in promoting public health: challenge and controversy dc.contributor.author: Douglas, Jenny; Earle, Sarah; Handsley, Stephen; Lloyd, C. E.; Spurr, S. dc.description.abstract: A Reader in Promoting Public Health brings together a selection of readings that reflect and challenge current thinking in the field of multidisciplinary public health. The chapters address issues that are high on the agenda of public health and the book will develop readers' understanding of this dynamic field.
  • Policy and practice in promoting public health
    dc.title: Policy and practice in promoting public health dc.contributor.author: Lloyd, C. E.; Handsley, Stephen; Douglas, Jenny; Earle, Sarah; Spurr, S. dc.description.abstract: Policy and Practice in Promoting Public Health offers an up-to-date analysis of the key policy and practice issues involved in promoting public health - from local and community levels, to international settings. The book equips readers with a sound understanding of the policy process, and has a critical edge that encourages readers to reflect on how those involved in multidisciplinary public health can use and influence policy in order to inform practice.

 Click here for a full listing of Stephen Handsley's publications and outputs.

Key research outputs

Handsley S, Faull C, Phelps K, Noguera A, Wale J, & Minns,T (Forthcoming) The power of purposeful pedagogy: reflective experiences of learners from a Foundation Degree in Palliative Care, Education and Research.

Douglas J, Earle S, Handsley S, Jones L C, Lloyd C E & Spurr S (eds) (2010) A Reader in promoting public health: challenge and controversy. 2nd Ed London. Sage.

Handsley S & Komaromy C (2010) ‘Death & Contagion’: contaminating bodies, in Douglas J, Earle S,Handsley S, Lloyd C & Spurr S. (Eds.). A Reader in promoting public health: challenge and controversy. 2nd ed Sage Publications in association with The Open University.

Handsley S (2009) ‘Double clutchin, bucket tipping, juggernaut driving, trucking time: a trucker’s tale’, in G Letherby & G Reynolds (eds). Gendered Journeys, Mobile Emotions. London. Ashgate Publishing.

Handsley S & Stocks S (2009). ‘Sociology and Nursing: role performance in a psychiatric setting’, International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 18(1): 26-34.

Research interests/expertise

  • Role performance in health and social care
  • Social & cultural identity
  • Care & compassion
  • Problems associated with researching hard-to-reach groups and communities
  • Methodological matters surrounding grief and mourning
  • Qualitative research methodologies in health
  • Community development, health promotion & public health
  • Pedagogy and performativity
  • Interdisciplinary teaching & learning
  • Widening participation.

Areas of teaching

BA Sociology

  • Module Leader – Developing a sociological Imagination
  • Module Leader – Identity and culture in a social world
  • Module Leader – Applied social research
  • Module Leader – Dissertation
  • Module Leader - Feminisms and masculinities

BA Health Studies

  • Module Leader - Health & disease in communities
  • Module Leader – Social aspects of health
  • Module Leader – Applied social research
  • Module Leader – Health promotion & public health

Qualifications

  • BA Sociology, University of Derby, 2000
  • PhD - Cultural Constructions of Mourning & Funerary Culture in the Irish Catholic Community in Derby, University of Warwick, 2007
  • PGCertHE (Distinction), De Montfort University, 2009.

Courses taught

  • BA Sociology
  • BA Health Studies
  • BA Social Work
  • MA Social Work

Membership of external committees

2007 - Present  East Midlands Teaching Public Health Steering Group.

2006 – Present PG Certificate in Palliative CareSteering Group, LOROS - Leicestershire and Rutland Hospice.

Membership of professional associations and societies

2007 - Present United Kingdom Public Health Association (UKPHA).

2000 – Present British Sociological Association (BSA).

Forthcoming events

  • BSA Medical Sociology Group 44th Annual Conference, University of Leicester, September, 2012
  • Public Health: An Update and Way Forward, London, October 2012.

Conference attendance

Care & Compassion Initiative, 10 May, 2012, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, Dignity & Compassion in Mental Health: Time for a rethink! Handsley S. & Stocks S. (Poster Presentation).

Influencing HealthCare through Education, 23 March 2010.Leicestershire, UK, Handsley S, Faull C, Noguera A, Phelps K, Wale J, Minns T & Ahmad F (2010) An evaluation of the impact of a foundation degree in palliative and supportive care: key findings, Conference Paper.

Consultancy work

Evaluation in Health Promotion and Public Health, Coventry City Council, UK.