University of Stirling expert in substance use and inclusion health recognised by Academy of Social Sciences
One of the country’s leading experts in substance use and inclusion health, Professor Tessa Parkes, has been made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
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One of the country’s leading experts in substance use and inclusion health has been made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Professor Tessa Parkes of the University of Stirling is renowned for her research into drug and alcohol use and homelessness. Her work is underpinned by a longstanding passion to reduce health inequalities by improving the way health services meet the needs of people with intersecting social and health problems and complex lives.
She is also an advocate for ‘inclusion health’ - an umbrella term that promotes ways to improve the healthcare experience of socially excluded groups who commonly endure very poor health outcomes.
Professor Parkes, Co-Director of the University of Stirling’s Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research (SACASR), is one of 56 leading social scientists across the UK, and one of just four in Scotland, to be conferred as a new Fellow of the Academy.
Professor Parkes is known in the health and social care sectors for the practical application of her work, and for addressing the wider issues associated with substance use and homelessness, such as mental health challenges and experiences of institutional care and violence as children and adults.
A former frontline support worker and mental health nurse, she has provided consultancy, training, and research and evaluation interventions to organisations in the UK and Canada for more than 25 years. The aim of this work is to improve service responses and reduce the discrimination and stigma experienced by those impacted by such challenges.
Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences and
I believe that undertaking collaborative and engaged research with a wide range of partners, including those directly affected by these issues, can make a significant impact on both policy and practice. I look forward to continuing this work at the University of Stirling, and to championing the role of social science through the Academy.
Professor Parkes said: “I’m honoured to be made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and to join a group of such accomplished and respected social scientists. I want to make health and social care services more accessible, welcoming, and effective for people with mental health and substance use challenges.”
She added: “I believe that undertaking collaborative and engaged research with a wide range of partners, including those directly affected by these issues, can make a significant impact on both policy and practice. I look forward to continuing this work at the University of Stirling, and to championing the role of social science through the Academy.”
Derek McGhee, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stirling, said: “This is well-deserved recognition for Tessa’s outstanding work, both in leading the Salvation Army Centre for Addictions Services and Research at the University of Stirling, and for the significant contribution her research makes. This is work which improves the experience of people using health and social care services, with a commitment to promoting social justice, health equity, and using high quality research as an advocacy tool for poorly served groups.”
Academy Fellows, made up of distinguished individuals from academic, public, private and third sectors, are conferred after independent and robust peer review as champions of the social sciences.
The new Fellows are making “exceptional efforts to tackle the urgent issues currently facing the UK in areas such as the economy, communities, the environment, places, and beyond”, said the Academy of Social Sciences.
The Salvation Army Centre for Addiction Services and Research was established in February 2017 to facilitate collaborative working in the area of substance use and homelessness between The Salvation Army and the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stirling.