How people who have experienced homelessness are redesigning support Professor Monique Lhussier & Dr Christina Cooper from Northumbria University, and an Experts by Experience panel Fuse researchers at Northumbria University were recently awarded £1.4m for a project looking to understand connections between trauma, health and homelessness in the North East. Here the research leads share how they have previously worked to embed community voices to improve health and reduce disparities for people with experience of homelessness. The link between trauma and homelessness has been well docum ..read more

Sally Smith, Peer Lead for Research, Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) I have met many wonderful and interesting people on the inside of a psychiatric ward. The immediacy and depth of connection between peers in there was an unexpected comfort in the most challenging of environments. Illustration by Sally Smith I remember lots of the stories shared in the smoking corners of gardens. We often reflected on how misunderstood we felt in the ward and in the world. One young woman was desperate to stay on the ward as she knew that was the on ..read more

Laura Ritson, Programme Manager, NIHR Three Research Schools, Prevention Research Programme, Newcastle University We are marking International Women's Day by saying thank you and a farewell to Laura Ritson, who helped to establish Fuse in 2008 and has been integral to the Centre's success, while at the same time welcoming new Fuse Manager Agata Robertson. In this post Laura talks about her journey with Fuse. Celebrating Fuse's 10th birthday After an incredible 16-year journey, the realisation that my chapter with Fuse has come to a close feels surreal. I am deeply grateful f ..read more

Cassey Muir, Research Associate from Newcastle University To celebrate #WorldBookDay, Cassey tells us about going beyond the research to co-produce a children's story book to help families affected by substance use which is now freely available. “To take the findings from our lived experience and create something real for families and people beyond the world of research has been brilliant”  Young person involved in the project Creating something real: How we produced a children’s story book When I had the opportunity to create a children’s story book based on some of my PhD rese ..read more

Posted by Liam Spencer, Fuse Associate and Research Assistant at Newcastle University February is LGBTQ+ History Month, an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. The 2024 theme celebrates LGBT+ peoples’ contribution to science and medicine both historically and today.  In this blog, Liam reflects on his research of LGBTQ+ young people’s mental health. As LGBTQ+ History Month unfolds, it offers us an opportunity to reflect on the strides we’ve made, the challenges we st ..read more

Posted by Bethany Henshaw, NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) Intern in Fuse, undergraduate at Newcastle University The NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) recently asked its members (including Fuse) if we would like to host an internship this summer. The summer internships are aimed at undergraduate students with an interest in a career in public health research. The internships offer support for 6-8-week projects supervised by SPHR Early Career Researcher (ECRs), Fellows and PhD students.  In this post, Beth (pictured right) tells us about her internship experien ..read more

Posted by Peter van der Graaf, Northumbria University; Amanda Purington Drake, Cornell University; and Ien van de Goor, Tilburg University We don’t like talking about failures, as it signals loss of time, resources and reputation, but failures present opportunities for learning in knowledge exchange.  However, this requires a ‘failure culture’ in academia and policy, in which failures are no longer avoided but actively encouraged. To learn how to turn failures into successes, we need to share and publish our failures, have early engagement with all stakeholders in the knowledge exchang ..read more

Posted by Amelia A Lake, Professor of Public Health Nutrition at Teesside University, and Shelina Visram, Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Newcastle University As we prepared our new review on the health effects of the consumption of energy drinks by children and young people, we have been dwelling more and more on the Commercial Determinants of Health. The Commercial Determinants of Health are defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as:  “...the private sector activities that affect people’s health, directly or indirectly, positively or negatively.” The WHO defi ..read more

Posted by Lesley Haley, AskFuse Research Associate, Teesside University  Did you play any board games over the holidays? As we scrabble into 2024, have you ever thought about how they could be used as a way to engage people in your research? I hadn’t, until I went to a recent Creative Methods in Research conference, where Kath Maguire (University of Exeter/NIHR School for Public Health Research) showcased how using board games in research was anything but trivial! Kath demonstrated the concept of using board games in public involvement and engagement can increase participation by reach ..read more

Posted by Victoria Bartle, Fuse Public Partner We were throwing balls of wool around, picking picture cards to describe ourselves and having a thoroughly inspiring time. This was not your typical research conference! It was day one and keynote speaker Pam Burnard was encouraging us to challenge the system using creative methods to subvert common assumptions. Many of the researchers at the International Creative Research Methods Conference in Manchester are independent, not linked to a specific university or funder and this allows them to approach research from a variety of unusu ..read more