University of St. Andrews, Scotland

University of St Andrews, School of Medicine, School of Sustainable Development and Geography, Centre of Minorities Research (CMR) and School of Social Anthropology.

Care Services

SDHI is funded through the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee and has a 14 year track record of facilitating and promoting inter-disciplinary research. The institute has close links with both NHS Fife and NHS Tayside, providing interdisciplinary research and training opportunities for health care workers and allied health professionals. Much of the research outputs feed back into the health service through knowledge exchange to inform policy and practice. Alex Baldacchino, associate director of SDHI, is professor of medicine, psychiatry and addiction at the University of St Andrews and is Lead Clinician & Consultant in Addiction Psychiatry at Queen Margaret Hospital in NHS Fife.

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Training Resources

SDHI has a number of externally funded training projects with post graduate students from schools across the two universities. Students receive mentoring through the institute and graduate through their schools. The institute hosts an annual postgraduate retreat which provides a relaxed and informal setting where students from different disciplines and at all stages of training, together with early postdoctoral researchers, can discuss their work, their experiences, and their expectations or aspirations in the context of their current research and career. SDHI has also co-ordinated a number of training projects on preparing grant applications and paper writing for health professionals, post graduate students and early career postdoctoral researchers.

Current Research Projects

Broadly, the institutes current research areas include accessibility of health service provision, patient safety, the use of knowledge in informing policy and practice, physical and psychological conditions arising from substance misuse, community integration through art, the concept of vulnerability in different environments or circumstances and being human in the digital age.